Legal Question in Criminal Law in North Carolina

I'm horrified at the fact that another tenant told me, confessed to having PTSD and a firearm in her home around her small children. The sickest, questionable part about this: She said her doctor gave her permission. Wouldn't this doctor be in violation or doctoral ethics?


Asked on 8/14/23, 8:05 am

2 Answers from Attorneys

You should likely just mind mind your own business.

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Answered on 8/14/23, 9:35 am
Edward Hoffman Law Offices of Edward A. Hoffman

1. I second Ms. Houser's comment.

2. PTSD affects different people in different ways. Some are more likely to commit gun violence than the average person, but most aren't. Your neighbor's doctor understands the condition better than you do. She knows more about your neighbor's health than you do. In particular, she knows more about the neighbor's PTSD (including what caused it and how it affects her) than you do. She has almost certainly discussed the subject at length with your neighbor in ways that you almost certainly haven't. If you and the doctor see things differently, then she is far more likely to be right than you are.

3. That a doctor's expert opinion about a medical issue differs from a layperson's assumptions does not mean the doctor has done anything unethical, let alone "sick." That's true even if she turns out to be wrong, as long as her opinion was reasonable based on the info available to her at the time.

4. For the most part, violating medical ethics is not a crime. Some criminal acts would also violate medical ethics, but they aren't crimes *because* they violate medial ethics and would still be crimes if committed by non-physicians.

5. Your question thus isn't about criminal law, even though that's the topic you posted it under. It isn't really about any area of law. There must be Q&A websites about medial ethics; you may want to submit your question to one of those sites instead. More people with relevant expertise would see it there.

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Answered on 8/14/23, 12:39 pm


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