Family Privacy and Death — Antigone, War, and Medical Research

A patient's right to privacy ends with the patient's death, but the privacy rights of the surviving family members are less clear. Annas discusses recent court rulings that have broadened privacy rights to include the family of the deceased. An Icelandic court ruled that a daughter could prevent the inclusion of information about her deceased father in a genetics research database. Given that relatives share patients' DNA, issues of family privacy will be hotly debated as genetic testing becomes more common in research and clinical practice.