Those are edge cases. Disappearing and living off the grid is not a sustainable or sane way to escape an abusive relationship, and (if you're an attractive whit

Those are edge cases. Disappearing and living off the grid is not a sustainable or sane way to escape an abusive relationship, and (if you're an attractive white woman) can escalate to national manhunts which just piss everybody off in the end, least of all your abusive partner. Abruptly disappearing is a behavioral pattern more common among the mentally ill than abuse victims, in which case alerting family is probably the most ethical thing one could possibly do. (If anything, the family themselves might not want to be contacted-- "oh, god, him again?") > I'm not sure police or hospitals should be going around asking after anyone who's an adult who hasn't consented. Everyone is someone's child, or parent. For the sake of a minority of lone wolves who just want to be left alone, why expect the rest of society to die alone in their hospital beds? Not everybody can even give consent, or are mentally sound enough to to do. The most human thing we can do is to try to connect patients with their families, even if it goes wrong a small fraction of the time.