Would you like your doctor to lie to you if you had cancer?

[soon2bepro]

Suppose you have a terminal cancer which isn't painful at all, in fact you don't even notice it and then at some point you drop dead without the slightest suffering.

[ALawPoker]

I voted for truth (well actually I clicked the wrong button, so take one off healthy and add one to truth). Supporting the lie implies that in the instance I don't acquire a terminal illness and the doctor tells me I'm good to go, I will always have some doubt.

I'd prefer to know I'm safe when I'm safe even if it means knowing I'm a goner when I'm a goner. I don't think you can have one without the other.

[van_exel_fan]

If you could know your ultimate demise...

[PLOlover]

I realize this has been common practice in some places in the past, but I would imagine that the USA currently, it would open up the doctor to a lawsuit too much.

[dizong]

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I realize this has been common practice in some places in the past, but I would imagine that the USA currently, it would open up the doctor to a lawsuit too much.

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I would agree with that. In med school, I don't recall being taught to hide info as it would be fairly rare for a person to not want to know. But we do spend a lot of time in learning HOW to break bad news...

[Duke]

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I realize this has been common practice in some places in the past, but I would imagine that the USA currently, it would open up the doctor to a lawsuit too much.

[/ QUOTE ]

I would agree with that. In med school, I don't recall being taught to hide info as it would be fairly rare for a person to not want to know. But we do spend a lot of time in learning HOW to break bad news...

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I'd feel a lot better about a doctor if they'd just say: "yea, you have blah, and you're going to die unless you have any great ideas that we haven't thought of yet. I'm sorry about that."

[AWoodside]

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I realize this has been common practice in some places in the past, but I would imagine that the USA currently, it would open up the doctor to a lawsuit too much.

[/ QUOTE ]

I would agree with that. In med school, I don't recall being taught to hide info as it would be fairly rare for a person to not want to know. But we do spend a lot of time in learning HOW to break bad news...

[/ QUOTE ]

I can envision some pretty complicated situations where chances of recovery are correlated strongly with the patient's emotional state. Say the drug treatment you were giving your patient was much more effective when given to people with low stress levels. Do you lie to them about their chances at living/drug effectiveness in this scenario, where it would actually maximize their chances of making it?

My personal feelings are that doctors are way too deified. I view them basically as glorified mechanics. I'm paying my doctor to render me a service, and I'm going to be pissed if he takes matters into his own hands because of some holier-than-though, paternalistic reasoning.

[dizong]

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I realize this has been common practice in some places in the past, but I would imagine that the USA currently, it would open up the doctor to a lawsuit too much.

[/ QUOTE ]

I would agree with that. In med school, I don't recall being taught to hide info as it would be fairly rare for a person to not want to know. But we do spend a lot of time in learning HOW to break bad news...

[/ QUOTE ]

I can envision some pretty complicated situations where chances of recovery are correlated strongly with the patient's emotional state. Say the drug treatment you were giving your patient was much more effective when given to people with low stress levels. Do you lie to them about their chances at living/drug effectiveness in this scenario, where it would actually maximize their chances of making it?

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If a drug is indeed proven to be more effective for people in a lower stress state, then highlighting its effectiveness wouldn't be lying necessarily. If the purpose of lying is to relieve anxiety and mislead the patient into thinking that the prognosis is better than it really is, then I think that's unethical and could lead to problems...

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My personal feelings are that doctors are way too deified. I view them basically as glorified mechanics. I'm paying my doctor to render me a service, and I'm going to be pissed if he takes matters into his own hands because of some holier-than-though, paternalistic reasoning.

[/ QUOTE ]

Deified by whom? Patients? The media? It is very rare in my experience to encounter a patient who "deifies" his/her physician. But there are plenty of patients who listen to the advice of their physician and put a lot of trust in the doctor's judgement and counsel. I wouldn't characterize this as deification. As for the media, I'm not sure I really give a [censored] myself. As for "glorified mechanics", I'm not sure what you mean by that. I'm a cardiologist and manual dexterity is not necessarily needed for my practice. Are there less cerebral doctors and specialties? Absolutely. But to believe that all doctors practice with a cookbook in hand would be a big misconception. I'll stop here, don't want to hijack the thread...

[PLOlover]

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Do you lie to them about their chances at living/drug effectiveness in this scenario, where it would actually maximize their chances of making it?

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there was a really great hbo movie about 4-5 years ago about a cancer patient (woman, british). I'll try to look up the name.

[PLOlover]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0243664/