Opinion: How a 1976 murder case changed doctor-patient confidentiality

Article excerpt

Just before the bicentennial fireworks started, on July 1, 1976, the precedent-setting Tarasoff v. Regents of University of California case redefined patient confidentiality by introducing the concept of “mandated reporting” and codifying the ethical and legal “duty to warn.” The case centered on the 1969 murder of Tatiana Tarasoff by Prosenjit Poddar, a man she briefly dated, who we might today call a stalker. Read the rest…