When Silence Becomes Dangerous: The Limits of Client Privilege and Confidentiality
Client privilege is the foundation of trust, client privilege exists to build trust for people to be able to reveal themselves and interact their deepest fears, mistakes and even their crimes, without the fear of exposure and this privilege encourages confidential conversations. Without this kind of privilege, it would be difficult for certain professions to do their jobs and people would find it difficult to open up, because they would withhold information and that would make it difficult to execute their task difficult. For instance, a lawyer would need information to represent his clients. If information is withheld from a doctor, it makes it difficult for the doctor to provide proper care and the exact care for the patient and for the priest without confession, they can't provide the right spiritual guidance.
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Client privilege gives those who visit the doctor, lawyers and priests the reassurance that they are safe, and their information is kept a secret and treated as confidential information. I understand the importance of client privilege to a person, but while it's very essential for the client involved, it shouldn't create a shield that permits/allows innocent people to die. There is certain information that has to be reported to protect others.
For instance, if an information protects others from harm , saves the life of a person, uncovers the identity of a deadly person working freely in our society or has an intention to kill people and cause havoc, protection should be the priority and not confidentiality.
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This exception has to be applied in more serious cases, in a confession that clearly indicates that it's a threat to the lives of others, because if confidentiality is broken for a case that doesn't pose much threat or risk to others, this could break the trust clients have in these professions, they are likely to avoid medical consultation and care, makes clients not open up to their legal practitioner for legal help, and even stop people from seeking spiritual guidance, and stop confession.
If this confidence is constantly broken, it could also build a society where people will prefer to die in silence instead of opening up and seeking for help.
And this will be a problem for those in the profession that confidential , because their patients won't open up, lawyers won't be able to help those in need of help legal representatives and help. Problems can be solved through honest conversations, and this would create a pose. Inasmuch as it's essential to break confidentiality when it poses a threat, it's also dangerous to break confidential information from clients routinely; it will break trust in these professions.
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For religious confidentiality, many priest believe they are spiritually forbidden to reveal confessions and confidential information confessed to them by others. Instead they encourage them to repent and seek help . They believe so much in keeping confessions secretly to avoid breaking confidentiality , because they believe it might discourage others from confessing and seeking spiritual guidance. But I believe if this confession might cause harm to others, they should prioritize protection and safety of people, over keeping information confidential.
A world without client privilege will be a world where more people will die in silence, less honesty/ truth the thought and worries that your words will be used against you will make people die in silence, keep their secrets to themselves and prefer to keep mute even in pain. This will make people less willing to seek legal support, open up to doctors and even seek spiritual support/ guidance from spiritual leaders. Everyone wants to communicate their secret affairs to those they trust.