Published 1 October 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b4031
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b4031

News

Doctors may share genetic information to help patients’ relatives

Clare Dyer

1 BMJ

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Clinical geneticists and medical ethicists have welcomed guidance from the General Medical Council that says that doctors may share confidential genetic information to protect a patient’s relatives, even if the patient objects.

The guidance focuses explicitly for the first time on genetic information that could benefit a family member as a possible exception to the rule that patients’ data must be kept confidential.

Previous advice in 2004 stated only the broad rule that doctors could disclose patients’ data if the benefits to an individual or society outweighed the public’s and the patient’s interest in keeping the information confidential.

The new advice follows advances in medical science and a recommendation by the Human Genetics Commission that doctors should be told explicitly that it may be justified to reveal information in the interests of relatives. The knowledge could, for example, alert family members with a genetic predisposition to breast or bowel cancer . . . [Full text of this article]


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Legal confidentiality obligations may limit disclosure of genetic information
Naomi L Hawkins, et al.
bmj.com, 26 Oct 2009 [Full text]
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