The Physician’s Duty to Warn Non-patients; Comparative Study in the Law of Iran and the United States of America

The physician’s obligation to warn or duty to inform individuals other than his or her patient who are at risk of danger from the patients has a vital role to protect and improve the public’s health. This obligation sometimes without disclosure of patients’ names in cases like dangerous disease outbreaks is entrusted to the upstream institutions such as the Ministry of Health and Medical Education (MOHME). The obligation to warn which includes disclosure of patients’ names firstly was mentioned in Tarasoff case. Its law has provided the circumstances of this obligation which is counted an exception to the principle of secrecy and confidentiality in medical law. In spite of its importance, the law of Iran does not have an explicit rule. But besides the implicit indications in some regulations based on Islamic jurisprudential maxims such as the mandatory of preserving Muslim’s life, it can be accepted the existence of this obligatory in general for the physician. Moreover this obligation provides the required interests which are emphasized by Islamic law such as preserving life and property. therefore even in the situation of the refusal and doubt in the indication of primary evidences to such obligation, the Islamic governor (ruler) to provide personal and public interests can assign the physician this obligation with the determined provisions and regulations. Of course the obligation of warning being an exception to the principle of secrecy and confidentiality, specifying its circumstances and conditions such as determining illnesses which creates obligation and determining the non-patients who are beneficiaries with applying circumstances like the circumstance of identifiable (identified) third parties Is vital.