Batman massacre: same lesson as before?

[Liv]

Therapy, no matter what should remain private. I can't budge on that.

If a therapist feels there is enough danger to warrant breaking that rule, than they should break it anyways and accept the recourse.

The privacy law is a deterrent from preventing misuse. (Oh say a Christian therapist wanting to lock us up for being atheists, etc.)

[SouthernFriedInfidel]

Here's an article regarding the sanctity of doctor-patient privilege.

Two California Supreme Court rulings, called Tarasoff I and II, shaped the ground rules for a clinician's duty to warn and protect a patient from themselves, and/or a potential victim or crime from taking place.

The Tarasoff case arose when Prosenjit Poddar, a student at the University of California, Berkeley, told his therapist of his intention to kill fellow student, Tatiana Tarasoff.

The therapist informed campus police, who briefly detained the student, but released him after he appeared rational and promised to stay away from Tarasoff. No further action was taken, and Tarasoff was not warned of the potential threat. Two months later, in October 1969, Poddar stabbed and killed Tarasoff.

The decision in Tarasoff I says therapists have a duty to warn a potential victim of a threat, even if it violates doctor-patient confidentiality. Tarasoff II, an extension of the first ruling, says the therapist also has an obligation to protect the person by alerting the appropriate law enforcement agency.

I expect that should anyone you care about personally were known by a psychiatrist to be in danger... you'd want that psychiatrist to do something about it, yes?

[Liv]

Yes, but that's a part of being human, about caring for our fellow brothers and sisters.

I don't think we should make it okay to break privacy laws.

Secondly, I'm not so sure even if you told the police in many of these cases, anything could be done.

I think it should remain illegal. If the doctor is compelled so heavily of a threat, then it's their right to break that law. If their "hunch" is wrong, then I think they should possibly suffer under a penalty.

HIPPA has protected millions from losing their jobs, from suffering abuses, being committed, etc. and so on.

Hell take away privacy laws, and you and me are one step from being locked up in the psycho ward by the republicans and Christians.

[SouthernFriedInfidel]

The point of the article is that it's NOT illegal for a doctor to alert authorities in cases where a patient is judged to pose a threat. The doctor that thinks her patient is on the cusp of a rampage and does nothing to restrain that patient using legal processes, that person should be held responsible in some part for the massacre that ensues.

[SouthernFriedInfidel]

Looks like yet another unstable fellow with a penchant for guns has had a violent encounter with the world. They seem to be coming out of the woodwork this year.

Eventually, we're going to have to have some sort of discussion about how the authorities might could prevent these things from happening. In all the cases we've seen over the past several weeks, the killers (well, one that was caught before he killed) were well known to the people around them as being not mentally or emotionally stable. And because nothing was done, innocent people have died.

I don't know what the solution is, because psych professionals have a real hard time telling the difference between normal people and psychopaths. But it'd be worth while to figure it out and find ways to get these people pulled out of society before they do it on their own terms.

[SouthernFriedInfidel]

And in the "Duh, REALLY?" department, I see that a man went to a theater to watch "Bourne Legacy" with a gun in his pocket... and accidentally shot himself in the ass.

And THIS was the sort of guy that was supposed to protect the rest of the theater from the armored insane gunman in the dark, smoke-filled chaos of an actual attack? Yeah... that makes sense.

[Liv]

Ha ha!

[A Person]

I see that a man went to a theater to watch "Bourne Legacy" with a gun in his pocket... and accidentally shot himself in the ass.

The man told officers the gun fell from his pocket Tuesday night as he was adjusting himself in the seat and that it discharged when it dropped to the floor.

So the safety wasn't on. He's damn lucky he didn't kill someone else - or have some other trigger happy movie goer take him out.
I hope he's charged with criminal negligence causing injury.

I wonder will having a new asshole change his mind about guns? Nah, probably not, the more assholes you have, the more guns you want.