Genetic Testing Challenges Medical Ethics

From Findlaw:

"Normally, under medical ethics, doctors are obligated to keep a patient's health information confidential - even after the patient dies. This duty is central to the doctor-patient relationship.

But...advances in genetic testing are placing strains on the principle of doctor-patient confidentiality. Doctors are grappling with whether to tell a patient's relatives when the patient has an inherited disease or mutation that could afflict other members of the family.

In an article in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association, doctors and legal experts argued against imposing a mandatory 'duty to warn' nonpatients."