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275: MEDICAL TREATMENT
AND A KIDNEY
TRANSPLANT FOR A
CRIMINAL

ɳ Question

This case involves a young patient who has previously been indicted
for breaking and entering, stealing, drug use and additional crimes,
for which he has served jail time. He was hospitalized owing to his
condition of irreversible, terminal renal insufficiency. In order to stay
alive, he must undergo regular dialysis on a chronic basis.

The patient continued using drugs while undergoing dialysis treat-
ments and also after his discharge home when he would come into
the hospital for his regular treatments. He would occasionally appear
in the hospital’s emergency room or the dialysis department to try
and avoid being interrogated by the police.

There was a disagreement among the medical staff treating him
as to whether or not to inform the police about his presence in the
hospital and about the possible crimes that by his own admission he
may have committed. Ultimately, after a very long while he was taken
into police custody after he performed an indecent act using threats.

We were faced with the following questions:

1. Were we obligated to notify the police as to where this fellow
was and the crimes he had committed, which included smoking drugs
in the ward or in the hospital precincts? [This is complicated by the

Treating Criminals 2 275