Exhausted carers, neglected patients, and filial duties: when and how should health professionals intervene in family caregiving arrangements?

The many difficult ethical issues raised by family caregiving have been thrust into prominence by recent changes to hospital funding systems which encourage earlier discharge of patients. This paper investigates the sort of involvement that health professionals might justifiably have in family caregiving arrangements. It argues that the proper role of health professionals in protecting exhausted family caregivers can be clarified by considering some analogies with arguments about justifiable breaches of patient confidentiality. The paper also argues that health professionals who seek to encourage neglectful adult children to help care for their sick parents should not do so by appealing to what a health professional takes those childrens’ filial duties to be.