Adsum

Newsletter of Mater Dei Seminary
June 2003

A Physician’s Professional Secret

Question: A physician discovers, in the exercises of his professional duties, that a young man, about to marry, is afflicted with a disease in a virulent form. He tries to persuade the young man to reveal his condition to his fiancee, but without success. May the physician inform the young woman of the danger she will encounter to health and happiness in the event that she contracts this marriage?

Answer: This question has been the subject of much theological controversy. Aertneys-Damen gives this solution: “Whether it is ever lawful, and even obligatory, for a physician to reveal a secret in order to avert a grave evil from an innocent party, is a matter of controversy among theologians, depending on whether they deem the common good more effectively promoted by silence or by the revelation of the secret. The greater number justify the breaking of the secret; a few demand that it be kept. In practice the manifestation of the secret seems to be lawful, though not of obligation” (Theologia Moralis, I, 1250).

In his recent dissertation, Professional Secrecy in the Light of Moral Principals, Dr. Robert Regan, O.S.A., gives a more detailed treatment of the question, upholding not only the lawfulness but also the obligation (per se) of a manifestation on the part of the physician in a case such as the question supposes. Dr. Regan says: “If the patient still refuses (to make the revelation himself) or if the physician, despite the patient’s promise, is not morally certain that the information has been or will be transmitted, then the physician is both permitted and obliged to reveal the facts to the other party, and in some cases (if the fiancee is too young or otherwise unable to appreciate the gravity of the situation) to the father or mother or guardian of the girl, as the case may warrant. The physician’s obligation so to act is a grave one in charity. but the danger of some proportionately serious harm’s befalling himself because of the revelation would excuse him from acting in the case. This harm might threaten, for example, from the patient whom he proposes to expose.”

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June 2003
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