Dr Amber R. Comer joins Ethics Talk to discuss her article, coauthored with Meredith Rappaport: “Treating Patients in Non-Labor and Delivery OB/GYN Examinations and Procedures.”

State laws often require physicians to report suspected abuse and assault, creating a dilemma for physicians who must not only treat the injured patient but act as an informant to police.

The Drexel University College of Medicine Women’s Health Education Program is a model for training medical students to screen for and respond to intimate partner violence.

The UCLA curriculum model educates students about intimate partner violence by integrating the topic into existing preclinical and clinical course work and offering elective experiences for interested students.

The risks associated with mandated physician reporting of intimate partner violence outweigh the benefits such a policy might confer.

Physicians are bound in most states to report treating injuries they suspect are violence related.

Law doesn’t always adequately address unauthorized uses of individuals’ DNA. Ethics can help establish legal privacy protections that work.

When confidential medical information can prevent a serious harm to a third party, the patient’s prima facie right to confidentiality must be balanced against the physician’s prima facie obligation to prevent serious harm to that third party.

A physician outlines the concept of the family covenant, an agreement between consenting family members that defines exactly how and when medical information is divulged to other family members.

Though the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s collection of disaggregated genetic data for occupational surveillance and research raises numerous privacy concerns, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 allows genetic information to be used to develop personal pharmaceuticals.