Tough Ethics Question

[Blue Flame]

A 15-year-old girl comes to see you for regular check-up. She has a distracted, depressed affect and eventually admits to you that her stepfather has been coming into her room at night and having sex with her for the last four years. What do you do next?

a) Call child protective services and report the incident.
b) Call the police.

(Assume all the other choices were clearly incorrect.)

What do you guys think?

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[MudPhud20XX]

B right?

I would choose A if I suspect that something is going on, but in this situation, it's pretty obvious this girl is being abused, so I would go for B.

 

[Blue Flame]

Good point, that's what I was thinking too. Ideally, I would choose to hospitalize the patient, which apparently you can do against the will of a guardian if you suspect child abuse, but I don't believe that was an option.

 

[tasar1898]

This looks like a bureaucracy question .. I guess I would call the child services and then they could deal with the family/police/kid.. Unless there is immediate danger to the kid, the physician calling the police seems premature..

What is the correct answer??

 

[Blue Flame]

I don't know the correct answer haha. My friend mentioned a question similar to this being on his Behavioral Science shelf and it seemed relevant to Step 1 and also challenging so I thought I would see what you guys thought.

 

[tasar1898]

Oh , I see … i remember the sequence being --> 1) Isolate the kid , 2) Call child services , and if the parents try to keep the child call police/security , maybe someone with actual experience can comment...

 

[Transposony]

You report the incident to child protective services who will call the police.
In the above question the stem does not mention that the girl is being accompanied by the stepfather.
As there is no clear and present danger to her for you to call the police but you have to report it immediately to child protective services.

 

[SKaminski]

You report the incident to child protective services who will call the police.
In the above question the stem does not mention that the girl is being accompanied by the stepfather.
As there is no clear and present danger to her for you to call the police but you have to report it immediately to child protective services.

ahhh, but if the stepfather accompanied her, then you would contact the police, first?

 

[Transposony]

ahhh, but if the stepfather accompanied her, then you would contact the police, first?

Not unless the stepfather is threatening or CPS is unavailable.