Essay On Physician Deception

Fan and Li argue that it can be morally acceptable to lie to or deceive a patient about the severity of their diagnosis. In traditional Western culture, it was accepted for physicians to lie or withhold the truth from patients in order to provide the best care. This was accepted because it allowed to physicians to treat without interruption of the stubbornness of their patients. In modern Western culture, physician deception is viewed as wrong because it takes away the autonomy of the patient. Similar to traditional Western culture, Chinese medical ethics focuses on what the family and physician thinks is best for the patient, even if it is lying or deceiving the patient. If a patient’s family wishes not to inform the patient, then the physician
69). A justification for this came from mainland China. Patients that were diagnosed with cancer, were found to either kill themselves or try to kill themselves. This lead to Chinese physicians withholding certain information to patients that they think cannot handle it. In mainland China, families of patients have even been known to bring physicians to court for disclosing information that the patient could not handle. Even though the physician is not required to tell the patient the truth, Chinese cultural tradition and law requires them to inform close family members. They view a family as more interdependent in medical decisions as opposed to the individual making the decisions alone. Signing a consent form for surgery is an example. The Chinese would view requiring a suffering patient to sign a consent form on their own as madness. Instead, they would have a family representative sign for that individual. For the Chinese patient, there is no reason in knowing if they have a fatal illness. They trust that their family will make the proper decisions and