Reporting Child Abuse: The Ethical Obligation to Inform Parents

Abstract

The failure of professionals to report many cases of suspected child abuse is welldocumented. However, a related, serious failure, the failure to inform parents that suspected abuse is being reported or actively considered, has received scant attention. When a certain threshhold of suspicion has been reached, it becomes deceptive not to inform parents. This deception by omission violates a moral rule and can be justified only in specific situations. Deception undermines therapeutic work. Informing parents facilitates empathy and enhances the possibilities for more effective intervention. Thus, informing parents face-to-face is both ethically required and clinically sensible in most cases.