Introduction: In healthcare settings, nurses often encounter ethical and moral dilemmas. This assignment presents an ethical dilemma. In this scenario, a patient, Carlos, who is recovering from a gunshot wound, is discharged home into the care of his sister Consuela. Carlos is HIV positive and Consuela is unaware of Carlos' HIV status. Carlos asked the healthcare workers at the hospital not to reveal this diagnosis to his sister. The question is whether the nurse should disclose this information to Consuela and what moral and ethical principles should guide the nurse in making this decision. Nursing ethics is guided by six ethical principles; beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy, justice, truthfulness and faithfulness (Chitty, 2005, p. 528). There is a conflict between Carlos' right to privacy and Consuela's right to be informed about Carlos' condition that may be relevant to her safety while providing care to Carlos. The nurse must organize adequate care for Carlos, minimize risks for Consuela and at the same time respect Carlos' autonomy and right to privacy. Provision 1.4 of the ANA Code of Ethics (ANA 2001, p. 8) describes the nurse's obligation to respect Carlos' autonomy in making decisions, and provisions 3.1 and 3.2 (ANA 2001, p. 12) describe the role of nurses in safeguarding patient privacy and confidentiality. Legally it would be a violation of Carlos' HIPAA rights to disclose his HIV status to Consuela after her explicit request not to disclose this information (HHS.gov, 2003). The risk of HIV transmission to Consuela is very low, but still above zero. Provision 2 of the ANA Code of Ethics states: "The nurse's primary commitment is to the patient, whether an individual, a family, a group or a community" (ANA 2001, p. 9), therefore the nurse can consider Consuela's rights to be equal to Carlos' rights. The nurse should not, given the current circumstances, reveal the status of Consuela Carlos. However, the nurse still has a few things she can do to defend Consuela before placing Carlos in her care. These actions will be discussed later in this article. Is a compromise available? First of all, the nurse argues that until Consuela is fully informed, Consuela cannot, in the context of discharge planning, be an appropriate caregiver. Consuela cannot give informed consent to care for Carlos because she has not been given all the information necessary to make an adequately informed decision. Allowing her to care for Carlos without disclosing his HIV status would be deceptive. Any professional carer assigned to care for him would be informed and would also be properly trained in standard precautions. Consuela is neither of the two things. The nurse should approach discharge planners and request that Consuela be removed from the list of eligible healthcare providers. This would allow Medicaid to revisit the case and perhaps assign an appropriate caregiver. In the absence of a home care provider, the nurse may argue that Carlos is, in fact, unfit for discharge and that the safest thing to do would be to allow him to recover in hospital, where he can be assured that he will have adequate caregivers. At the same time, the nurse should talk to Carlos and continue to encourage him to allow Consuela to be informed of his status. The nurse should not agree to make a discharge that allows Consuela to care for Carlos without being informed. To quote Angell from the original case study: “If Carlos insists