The impact of sexual abuse on female development: a longitudinal study

Re:The impact of sexual abuse on female development: a longi... by sandworm101 on Thursday January 13, 2022 @11:57AM (#29923152)

Because a doctor's duty is to their patient, not the justice system. Breaking up the family might not be the best thing for the pregnant girl or newborn. I'm not saying they actively cover up abuse, but doctors know not to ask questions they don't want answered. Blanket genetic testing determinative to determine parentage is very dangerous knowledge.

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Re:The impact of sexual abuse on female development: a longi... by usaar333 on Thursday January 13, 2022 @01:36PM (#29924683)

I'm dubious that this lacks societal benefit overall. Even if we buy that breaking up the sexually abusive family is't the best thing (already dubious), there's strong second order effects of this disincentiving abuse.

Automatic genetic testing also has other advantages of preventing future paternity disputes.

Honestly, this would be an interesting thing for a single state to run an experiment with and see how behaviors change.

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Re:The impact of sexual abuse on female development: a longi... by Mikeb85 on Thursday January 13, 2022 @02:37PM (#29925661)

While society would no doubt benefit from outing abusers, teen births as a whole are a tiny portion of births. 10% of a small number is a small number.

Given women cheat at the same rates as men, blanket genetic testing would break up a significant amount of families. That's why some countries (France for example) ban paternity tests.

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Re:The impact of sexual abuse on female development: a longi... by spamizbad on Thursday January 13, 2022 @12:01PM (#29923205)

Aren't doctors mandatory reporters in the United States?

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Re:The impact of sexual abuse on female development: a longi... by sandworm101 on Thursday January 13, 2022 @12:06PM (#29923298)

Mandatory reporters, not mandatory investigators. If they have no knowledge of the abuse they have nothing to report. If the girl says that her boyfriend is the father, the doctor isn't going to run extra tests just to prove her wrong. There is no medical advantage to the patient in such testing. Doctors are not cops.

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Re:The impact of sexual abuse on female development: a longi... by suifbwish on Thursday January 13, 2022 @12:46PM (#29923944)

Their primary directive legal or not is to uphold the oath they took to do no harm. If reporting would cause them to violate this ancient creed then it is for they to decide what they will do.

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Re:The impact of sexual abuse on female development: a longi... by emodendroket on Thursday January 13, 2022 @12:58PM (#29924135)

Sure, if they want to risk being stripped of their license, they can flout the law.

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Re:The impact of sexual abuse on female development: a longi... by pfortuny on Thursday January 13, 2022 @02:00PM (#29925066)

That law (in this case) is so difficult to enforce that it matters very little.

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Re:The impact of sexual abuse on female development: a longi... by 8note on Thursday January 13, 2022 @07:40PM (#29929101)

Their patients would include the mother, wouldn't it?

Ending abuse for the pregnant girl is certainly their prorogative

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