Mother Still Knows Best: Cancer-Related Gene Mutations, Familial Privacy, and a Physician's Duty to Warn
![handle is hein.journals/frdurb26 and id is 267 raw text is: MOTHER STILL KNOWS BEST:
CANCER-RELATED GENE MUTATIONS,
FAMILIAL PRIVACY, AND A PHYSICIAN'S
DUTY TO WARN
Alissa Brownrigg*
Whatever, in connection with my professional service, or not in
connection with it, I see or hear, in the life of men, which ought
not to be spoken of abroad, I will not divulge, as reckoning that
all such should be kept secret.'
Introduction
At the completion of medical school, graduates embarking on
their careers as physicians mark the moment by taking the Hippo-
cratic Oath.2 Although the oath originated as early as the fifth cen-
tury B.C., its vow to abstain from sharing a patient's personal
information remains an important tenet of medical care today.
The oath's assurance of privacy encourages patients to divulge per-
sonal information, trusting that their doctors will keep it confiden-
tial, even from members of the patients' families.4
* J.D. Candidate, Fordham University School of Law, 1999; B.A., magna cum
laude, Barnard College, 1996; A.D.N., University of Hawai'i, Manoa, 1988. I would
like to extend my appreciation to Professor Elizabeth Cooper for her valuable insight
and advice and Radford Small for providing endless encouragement.
1. Oath and Law of Hippocrates (visited Nov. 24, 1998) <ftp://ftp.std.com/obi/
Hippocrates/HippocraticOath>.
2. See Robert D. Orr & Norman Pang, The Use of the Hippocratic Oath: A Re-
view of 20th Century Practice and a Content Analysis of Oaths Administered in Medi-
cal Schools in the U.S. and Canada in 1993 (visited Feb. 19, 1998) <http://www.sequel.
net/-twilight/poath9.htm> (noting that while a majority of medical schools do adminis-
ter a version of the oath that omits outdated content of the traditional oath, some
schools do not administer the Hippocratic Oath at all).
3. See Charles Marwick, Medical Records Privacy a Patient Rights Issue, 276
JAMA 1861 (1996) (A patient has a right to keep personal medical information con-
fidential .... [T]he best guide for steering a path way through today's computerized
medical recordkeeping is the Hippocratic oath.); American Medical Association-
Institute for Ethics, Principles of Medical Ethics (visited Nov. 24, 1998) <http://www.
ama-assn.org/ethic/pome.htm> (A physician shall ... safeguard patient confidences
within the constraints of the law.).
4. See Marwick, supra note 3 (Plans with a more cavalier attitude to privacy will
not attract members, who will switch to other plans if they can or withhold informa-
tion about their health if they can't.) (citation omitted); Bernard Friedland, Physi-
cian-Patient Confidentiality; Time to Re-Examine a Venerable Concept in Light of](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/frdurb26&div=19&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Mother Still Knows Best: Cancer-Related Gene Mutations, Familial Privacy, and a Physician's Duty to Warn
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