Hands off Paramedics

Ben came up with this question. These sorts of issues of balancing privacy and personal rights with public safety etc. are always interesting to me.

Scenario: you are unconscious on the sidewalk. Someone calls 911. Paramedic goes thru your pockets to find your ID. In so doing, he finds "something" (illegal drugs, a gun, whatever).

Can what he found be used against you?

Short answer: YES.

You can think of it the same as if you were walking past a police station and happened to drop a bag of meth. Cops could absolutely nail you for that.

It would NOT be OK if the paramedic were going thru your pockets on the request of a cop, or against your regained-consciousness wishes, or under otherwise "non-medically required" circumstances.

I wonder what protocols the paramedic folk have for going thru someone's wallet. Hopefully they are robust.

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Now you can extend this question to MD's. Suppose you go to your MD with some weird injury which causes him/her to realize that you are blatantly doing something illegal. Can the cops force him/her to testify against you?

Short answer: YES.

They'd need a warrant, or whatever, but ultimately they could. MD's are also required to proactively report behaviour which presents imminent danger to someone. All of this is different with lawyers, of course.

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