Truth-telling and patient communication in clinical practice

Telling Patients the Truth

In regards to the permissibility of deception on the part of Sokol, the writer (2006) ultimately argues that "withholding…information from…patients would be ethically permissible and, more generally, that honesty is not always the best policy" (p. 19). Sokol reaches this conclusion by evaluating a real life case study in which a daughter is willing to donate her kidney to an individual whom she believes is her father. However, while medically evaluating the former for compliance with kidney transplant criteria, the doctors determined that the pair cannot be biologically related. The critical determinant in Sokol's conclusion (2006) is that "The testing was not done to establish paternity and, from a medical point-of-view, the findings do not preclude…donating" (p. 19). Essentially, the author utilizes this case study to reason that informing the patients of this situation could provide too many unnecessary complications which could negatively impact the kidney operation -- such as either of the patients refusing to do it due to the unsolicited knowledge. After examining the potential positives and the potential negatives of this situation, the author (2006) concludes that medical personnel are obliged to provide "relevant" (p. 22) truth, and not that which is otherwise.

The principle conclusion that Higgs reaches regarding the telling of truth of medical personnel is that they should make most attempts to engage in this practice. Specifically, the author (1985) denotes that "Whether or not knowing the truth is essential to the patient's health, telling the truth is essential to the health of the doctor-patient relationship" (p.18). This quotation also alludes to the principle way the author reaches his conclusion -- by examining the fundamental principles of the relationship between patients and medical professionals. In doing so he asks quite a few rhetorical questions, and also utilizes examples: both hypothetical and real. Repeatedly he dwells on the results of the negative impact that failure to tell the truth (p. 14) or to simply deceive the patient) produce, such as in the instance when the six-year-old child grew up to never forgive his father for lying about the death of the former's mother (Higgs). Higgs acknowledges (1985) the fact that there are some occasions in which lying is permissible, but these require the type of firm justifications that can uphold his general notion that the truth should be upheld (p. 18).