Medical Ethics -Should Doctors Tell Their Patients the Truth?

With regards to the issue of whether doctors should tell the truth to their patients, the AMA's Principles of Medical Ethivs state, "A physician shall be dedicated to providing competent medical care, with compassion and respect for human dignity and rights (AMA). This effectively states that doctors, indeed, shall tell the turht. However, in the advancing filed of medical ethics, the issue become the timing of telling the truth, how to best tell the truth, how much truth to tell, and who decides these issues and many more.

As society advances in terms of science and medicine, the line between the truth and a lie really begins to blur and blend. Is withholding part of the turh a lie? What is the patient could be harmed by the information? Should the doctor still tell the truth? What if the patient is too ill to understand the information? Does the doctor still tell the patient? Who else does he/she tell? Who makes the decision about treatment? How are these issues decided and many more. If doctors tell the turht in certain situations, they may actually harm their patients. However, if they do not tell the turh, the patient's trust in the doctor and the entire medical profession can be eroded. There are two schools of camp-one that believes doctors are acting within the best limits of their profession and one who feels that doctors are making too many decision for patients.