"GROSS BREACH."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 112, 14 May 1935, Page 7

"GROSS BREACH."

B.M.A. AND POLICE QUESTIONS

LONDON, May 8.

Should a doctor tell? The old question is revived in a rather different way by police appeal in connection with the still unsolved Brighton trunk mystery Xo. 1. The subject is discussed in the current number of the "British Medical Journal," in which Dr. Hawthorne, chairman of the ethical committee of the 8.M.A., reveals that local practitioners were asked by the police whether any woman of the are and condition of the victim had sought advice and not subsequently been seen again.

Brighton doctors at=ked the B.M.A. what their attitude should be, and Dr. Hawthorne replied that the police requests should not be acceded to, as to do so would be a gross breach of professional confidence and might involve the doctor in an action for damages There is however, no hard and last rule and'doctors must decide the question in accordance with individual conscience. \ iucl«e may over-rule a plea of professional secrecy- as in a case in the King's Bench Division, when Mr Justice MaXgHen ordered a doctor _to dfeclo'e a secret, in the interests of justice. The judge then Replied to the doctors nleV of professional secrecy: "There is bv answering any questions. The late Mr. Justice McCardie made a similar ruling in a divorce case several years ago.