How much would you want to be told by your
doctor if you were diagnosed with a terminal disease? The communication of such
a diagnosis, for example cancer, is one of the worst things any doctor has to
cope with, but can giving false hope lead to malpractice?
Perhaps an ethical doctor should communicate the unembellished factual truth. This gives the patient time cross several things off their bucket list, to get their affairs in order, and go through the stages of grief. The patient's loved ones must also be advised so they can offer assistance and support to the dying individual.
Another theory contends that a dying patient shouldn't be told right away he or she is facing impending death. This may spare the patient a lengthy period of despair and anxiety. Moreover, she or he could be one of the small percentage of people who actually overcome the odds and survive their disease. This strategy has obvious downsides.
Oncologist, Dr. James Salwitz, relates the story of a cancer patient who'd not been told of the seriousness of her affliction. As her cancer spread, her first oncologist told her that she had nothing to worry about. However, by the time she saw Dr. Salwitz for a second opinion, she had only weeks to live. She was outraged that she had been kept in the dark and she believed she would have lived her life differently had she known she was dying. Her first oncologist justified his decision by saying that her last months would be hopeful and happy.
Another doctor, Stanislaw Burzynski, claims he can cure half of the cancer patients who get his treatment, which utilizes sodium-rich drugs taken directly from blood and urine, but now created synthetically. For $25,000 he will treat terminally ill cancer patients with this dubious drug. Some of his patients swear they were cured by the treatment, nevertheless the FDA has found no evidence that even one patient has been cured by it.
Perhaps an ethical doctor should communicate the unembellished factual truth. This gives the patient time cross several things off their bucket list, to get their affairs in order, and go through the stages of grief. The patient's loved ones must also be advised so they can offer assistance and support to the dying individual.
Another theory contends that a dying patient shouldn't be told right away he or she is facing impending death. This may spare the patient a lengthy period of despair and anxiety. Moreover, she or he could be one of the small percentage of people who actually overcome the odds and survive their disease. This strategy has obvious downsides.
Oncologist, Dr. James Salwitz, relates the story of a cancer patient who'd not been told of the seriousness of her affliction. As her cancer spread, her first oncologist told her that she had nothing to worry about. However, by the time she saw Dr. Salwitz for a second opinion, she had only weeks to live. She was outraged that she had been kept in the dark and she believed she would have lived her life differently had she known she was dying. Her first oncologist justified his decision by saying that her last months would be hopeful and happy.
Another doctor, Stanislaw Burzynski, claims he can cure half of the cancer patients who get his treatment, which utilizes sodium-rich drugs taken directly from blood and urine, but now created synthetically. For $25,000 he will treat terminally ill cancer patients with this dubious drug. Some of his patients swear they were cured by the treatment, nevertheless the FDA has found no evidence that even one patient has been cured by it.
Is giving false hope considered
malpractice? In the first case it could be, depending on the way the judge or
jury see it. In the case of Dr Burzynski, if it is found that he's taking money
from desperate people in exchange for an ineffective treatment, what he is
doing would not only be medical malpractice, but also fraud.
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