Issues of Medical Professionals Lying to Patients - Essay Example

She perceives it as a failure to differentiate between the truth from truthfulness. Though she disagrees with this statement, in my opinion, some similarities with Meyer’s viewpoint exist. Meyer believes that the truth cannot always be clearly defined hence; it cannot always be presented to the patient (Meyer, n.d). In this case, Meyer provides the example of conditions that are terminal at the time of disclosure, however, may have a cure in the near future. It coincides with Bok’s example of telling the patient he has at least four months to live, instead of telling him that he will die in four months.

The fact that he will live for four months is verified, however, the fact that he will die isn’t. Meyer believes that patients may ask for the truth meanwhile they do not actually want the truth and simply want to gain confidence from the good news. However, Bok believes it is an empirical fact that patients want to hear the truth about their condition and doctors have no right or justification to withhold information on the assumption that patients actually prefer it (Bok, n.d). Bok agrees with Meyers’s view that the truth may sometimes harm the patient.

Meyer refers to this as ‘therapeutic privileged’. However, Bok believes that this claim by Meyer is exaggerated and benefits from telling the truth exist and are not given sufficient attention. Bok believes that telling the patient the truth allows him or her to decide what steps to take forward in his or her treatment process. She allows withholding of information from the patient if the decision is made by more than one doctor, if a close relationship exists between the doctor and patient and if the burden of justification is placed on the doctors (Bok, n.d).