Question

Consider under what circumstances a professional’s legal responsibilities may overlap with his or her ethical duties.

Answer 1

Ethical relationship with a patient is based on respect, dignity, trust, patient care. A medical professional almost always balances the ethical and legal responsibilities well. But sometimes legal issues may overlap with the ethical duties. One such case is seen with maintaining and protecting the medicsl information of patient as suggesfed bh HIPAA. If a patient have AIDS or infected with HIV, the ethical duty calls for making patient’s sexual partner aware about the patient’s condition but legally according to HIPAA the professional need to maintain privacy of patient’s health condition.