Thursday, June 10, 2004
Doctor defends child murder claim
Speaking with my ethics hat on, this whole thing worries me. It is certainly strange that a consultant makes a diagnosis without the patients notes and without actually seeing the patient. However, if we assume that we are hearing the full story and that the only evidence that there was to go on was through the media (and this is a significant assumption) then, if an expert sees something that, to them, looks like a duck and talks like a duck, it probably is a duck. Only in this case, it's a defenceless child who is possibly in danger. What should they do?
I would have thought that informing the police of your concerns seems a reasonable approach. If I see people behaving suspiciously, I'd tell the police. And yet he's now up in front of the GMC accused of Gross Professional Misconduct. It's not clear what misconduct has occurred - if he had not reported his suspicions, surely that's misconduct?
He may have been completely wrong about the father being guilty. He may not - that is not really the issue here. The big problem is that there appears to be an institutional over-reaction to what seems to me to be a perfectly appropriate course of action from a person who sees no choice but to act because the consequences of not acting are potentially far, far worse, and the child in the middle of this is unable to stand up for themselves.
Speaking with my ethics hat on, this whole thing worries me. It is certainly strange that a consultant makes a diagnosis without the patients notes and without actually seeing the patient. However, if we assume that we are hearing the full story and that the only evidence that there was to go on was through the media (and this is a significant assumption) then, if an expert sees something that, to them, looks like a duck and talks like a duck, it probably is a duck. Only in this case, it's a defenceless child who is possibly in danger. What should they do?
I would have thought that informing the police of your concerns seems a reasonable approach. If I see people behaving suspiciously, I'd tell the police. And yet he's now up in front of the GMC accused of Gross Professional Misconduct. It's not clear what misconduct has occurred - if he had not reported his suspicions, surely that's misconduct?
He may have been completely wrong about the father being guilty. He may not - that is not really the issue here. The big problem is that there appears to be an institutional over-reaction to what seems to me to be a perfectly appropriate course of action from a person who sees no choice but to act because the consequences of not acting are potentially far, far worse, and the child in the middle of this is unable to stand up for themselves.
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(c) 2003-2005 Russell Beale
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