Tarasoff Case

SALCEDO, ALYSSA MARIE R. MARIA CHRISTINE A.
CABUGAO
C2-2BSN-8 NUR 104: HEALTH CARE ETHICS
1. How will you relate harm principle to the Tarasoff case?
Harm, injury, or damage means an act that causes pain or losing someone. While
Harm principle requires health care providers refrain from acts or omissions that would
foreseeably result in harm to others, especially in cases in which victim or individuals is
vulnerable to risk.
During the Tatiana (Tanya) Tarasoff case, when Tanya kissed Poddar in New
Year’s evening Poddar interpreted the kiss as a symbol of the seriousness of their
relationship. When he explained this to Tanya, she replied that he was wrong and that
she was more interested in others than in him. This rejection caused Poddar to undergo
severe emotional crises during which he became withdrawn, ignored his studies, stayed
alone often, and wept frequently. Until he began to visit a psychologist in campus.
Sometime later in the summer, when Tanya was apparently on vacation to Brazil, he
confided to the psychologist that when she returned, he was going to kill her.
The psychologist believed Poddar and notified the campus police, requesting that
they have him committed and it is where a harm principle is related to this case because
the psychologist immediately reported it to the campus police. They briefly detained him,
but he was released because he appeared to be rational and promised to stay away from
her. The patient terminated therapy because of attempts to hospitalize him. At the order
of the psychologist's superior, a psychiatrist, no further steps were taken to commit
Poddar or warn Tanya. In late October, Poddar went to Tanya's home to talk with her.
She was not at home and her mother told him to leave. He did but returned later that night
with a pellet gun and a butcher knife. He said he wanted to speak with her, and she began
to scream. He then shot her with the pellet gun. She ran from the house, Poddar followed,
and catching her, stabbed her repeatedly and fatally with the butcher knife.
2. List the 2 basics principles in conflict in the Tarasoff case? Explain
Confidentiality
Licensed social workers and other mental health professionals are
compelled to reveal confidential information about their clients when they are a
harm to themselves or others. Poddar was a client of Dr. Lawrence Moore, who
was employed by the University of California, and had stated during a therapy
session that he intended to kill Tarasoff because she had rejected him as a lover.
He was assessed as a danger and was held briefly and released.
Shortly after his temporary confinement, he did indeed kill Tarasoff during an
attack with a pellet gun and knife. The victim’s parents sued the therapist, campus
police, and everyone who had contact with the case at the University of California
(Board of Regents) for wrongful death. They asserted that if the therapist knew
that Poddar was indeed a danger and there was intent related to his threat to his
victim, that they had a duty to warn her. In the majority decision, the court found
that the “protective privilege ends where the public peril begins” [17 Cal.3d 425,
441 (1976)]. The decision had a significant impact on the legal requirements for a
clinician and certainly affected a client’s confidentiality. If, during therapy, a
clinician assesses a client as a danger to someone, he or she has a duty and is
legally compelled to warn the intended victim.
Beneficence
The principle of beneficence is the obligation of physician to act for the
benefit of the patient and supports several moral rules to protect and defend the
right of others, prevent harm, remove conditions that will cause harm, help persons
with disabilities, and rescue persons in danger.
But during the Tarasoff case, the psychologist’s superior, a psychiatrist
failed to warn the third party (Tanya Tarasoff’s side) and failed to prevent the harm,
that’s why Poddar killed Tanya with a pellet gun and butcher knife. The parents of
Tanya Tarasoff sued the psychologist, his superior, campus police, their employer,
the University of California because they failed to warn them, Tanya or anyone
who could have reasonably been expected to notify Tanya of her danger and for
neglecting to confine Poddar.

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SALCEDO, ALYSSA MARIE R. MARIA CHRISTINE A.

1. How will you relate harm principle to the Tarasoff case?

2. List the 2 basics principles in conflict in the Tarasoff case? Explain

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