Medical Jurisprudence, Forensic medicine and Toxicology. Vol. 1Witthaus, R. A. (Rudolph August)
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Medical Jurisprudence, Forensic medicine and Toxicology. Vol. 1
Witthaus, R. A. (Rudolph August)
Medical jurisprudence; Poisons; Toxicology
In Iowa, a physician who had treated a patient for injuries was not
allowed to testify whether his patient told him that the car on which
he was injured was in motion at the time, because as the injury would
be likely to be more severe if the car was in motion, that information
was necessary to enable the physician to prescribe.[417]
In Michigan, a physician was allowed to contradict his patient as
to when her trouble commenced, in the absence of evidence that
such information was necessary to enable him to act.[418] Where a
physician was asked whether he treated a person for typhoid fever,
and he answered that she was not so diseased, it was held that this
information was not necessary to enable him to act.[419] And the same
was held to be true where a physician examined a prisoner at the jail
and testified that he was diseased, the prisoner having been notified
at the time of the examination that it was made by direction of the
prosecuting attorney and there being no intention to prescribe or act
for the prisoner.[420] But it has been stated that all disclosures by
a patient to a physician respecting ailments are privileged whether
necessary to enable the physician to prescribe or not.[421]
In Minnesota, a physician was allowed to disclose statements as to
suffering made by his patient, but not for the purpose of enabling him
to prescribe or act.[422]
In Missouri, it has been said that information as to the way in which
an injury was inflicted is of the greatest necessity for successful
treatment; and that it is information which physicians universally
demand and receive.[423] In another case, with reference to the cause
of a patient’s condition, it was said that while knowledge of the
cause may not be necessary, the disclosure of the cause cannot be made
without a disclosure of the condition, and that as a medical person
cannot tell indirectly what he is forbidden to tell directly, the
physician’s evidence of the cause is inadmissible.[424] In another case
it was said that any information, necessarily coming to a physician in
order to treat his patient, is to be regarded as necessary information
though unimportant, and that the test is how it was acquired, not
whether it could have been acquired in a different way, and therefore
it was incompetent for a physician to testify that his patient was
drunk when he treated him.[425]
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