When Should Professional Confidentiality Be Broken?

Client privilege is what I believe to be a kind of oath of secrecy professionals like doctors, lawyers and the like have towards their clients' information shared with them in private. Regardless of how complicated it is, these professionals ought to help them keep this information safe no matter what and not share it with anyone. However, what if, in a life-and-death situation, such information should be shared or should they still keep to their oath because it's what their job or profession expects from them?

Take for instance, as a doctor, a patient of yours might have a severe illness they're dealing with, but regardless of how concerned others around them are, you're not supposed to share it with them, except such people give you the go-ahead. But then, in the event that such patients fainted and needed to be taken in and a family member stayed by them and properly paid their bills, wouldn't you share their private situation with such people who are willing to carry the bill?

As a priest, if someone came to you to make a confession about being a notorious criminal, would you just pray for them and let it slide, knowing fully well that such a person is being sorted out by the law enforcement agency? Or let's say you're a lawyer and your client happens to be a criminal in the business of kidnapping, and you happen to find out. Would you keep quiet because you want to respect your attorney privileges, or would you share it with the police so your client, who's a criminal, can be apprehended?.

Talking about if such a secret should be shared with others in a life-or-death situation, like saving a life, should it be shared? Well, I think personally I believe they should go ahead and do it. Imagine someone who doesn't want to share his or her health challenges with others but then suffers a cardiac arrest. Won't you, as a doctor, share what is meant to be done to save your client with those around him so that he can get the necessary help and have his or her life saved and not be cut short because you want to uphold your oath?

Or a priest who has someone come to him for a confession and say something like he kidnapped two people and has killed one of them, but now he seems to have repented but seems unstable – will you keep quiet and let him go back and end up killing the second person, or will you alert the necessary authority for him to be apprehended and have the life saved? In my opinion, the secret should be shared just to save a life. We are first human before our various professions, and if you didn't save that life, you might live to regret those actions forever.

Yes, I know such people can come back to sue you in court for breach of contract or breach of your client privilege agreement, but then even if you lose your job, people will still know you did the right thing, and bigger opportunities might even come through for you, and if they don't, you'll sleep at night peacefully, knowing you did the right thing.

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