Dr's Personal Code of Ethics
My 15 year old son recently ran away from home. I contacted every friend of his and one of those friends parents happen to be a local "well known" Doctor. The Doctor and his family; My son's friend, his sister, mother and the Doctor himself were all present when I went to their home asking if anyone knew the whereabouts of my son. The Doctor immediately stepped up and said " We all know where your son is. But we are not going to tell you because I don't want to have my son breach the confidence between your son and my son." I specifically asked the Doctor and his wife if they knew exactly where my son was. They both replied, " Yes." When I said to them " You are refusing to tell me where my son is?" Again both the Doctor and his wife said yes. At that point, the Doctor told me I needed to leave their home, which I did and immediately and called the police. The police came and the Doctor and his family changed their tune and the Doctor and his family were wrong in knowing the location of my son.
OK, the question here is: Did the Doctor have some sort of legal right to keep that information from me? Morally I know he should have told me, but now ethics are a part of this question as well. What if my son had been laying hurt somewhere? Or worse found dead? Thank God he was found OK... But at what point does the Doctor have a "duty" to tell me where my son was? Everyone I have spoken too, have all agreed the Doctor was wrong in keeping that information from me.