Legal Question in Legal Ethics in Canada

Re: Patient and Doctor Relationship

No but the Doctor is running a potentially serious risk with the professional governing body.The physician is a person who has received intimate personal information about the patient and who is a person who is a fiduciary--that is a person who owes the patient a duty to act in his or her best interests. The problem arises when considering, taking into account the nature of the patient/doctor relationship whether the patient who is at risk because of the nature of the relationship can properly form the requisite independent and voluntary decision to consent to the new relationship. The doctor can be censured by the body governing his/her right to practise because these relationships are frowned on due to the potential for the Doctor to exercise undue influence on the former patient.