Oscar W. Clarke

Parental Consent for Abortion-Reply

In Reply. —In our Council Report on abortion for minors, the Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs concluded that physicians should strongly encourage minors to discuss their pregnancy with their parents. The report emphasizes the value of parental involvement and instructs physicians to ensure that a minors reluctance to involve her parents is not based on any misperceptions about the likely consequences of parental involvement. The report does not exclude parents nor does it discourage parental involvement. The report recognizes that, in some cases, parental involvement may be harmful. For example, the minor may live in an abusive home, and disclosure of her pregnancy might result in further abuse. In addition, like adults, adolescents need privacy in matters of personal intimacy. Because of the risk of harm to the minor and the minors need for privacy, the report concluded that minors should not be forced to involve their parents. Nevertheless,

Genetic Screening by Insurance Carriers-Reply

In Reply. —As both letters indicate, important ethical concerns are raised if genetic testing is used by insurers, both for employment-related group policies and for individual policies. The Council has been developing a separate report on genetic and other medical testing by insurers, which it expects to present to the American Medical Associations House of Delegates in June 1992. Dr Engelbergs letter was shown to Dr Juengst, who declined to reply . —Ed.