Jolanta Katafias

Publications of Jolanta Katafias

• [The truth in medicine. The scale's problem of information given a patient by a doctor in the light of ethics]

  Authors: Jolanta Katafias

  Medycyna nowozytna : studia nad historia medycyny / Polska Akademia Nauk, Instytut Historii Nauki. 02/2005; 12(1-2):53-65.

  The aim of the paper is presenting problematic issue of truthfulness in medicine, as the moral obligation underlined by the "don't lie" norm. The article presents an attempt to answer the questionThe aim of the paper is presenting problematic issue of truthfulness in medicine, as the moral obligation underlined by the "don't lie" norm. The article presents an attempt to answer the question whether from the ethical point of view the requisition of truthfulness is the arbitrary obligation of the physician addressing the patient or there are justified exceptions from the rule, and if yes, what the supporting rationale is. Comparing the arguments for and against we may conclude that the position presented by the absolutists, who recognize the truthfulness in medicine as a requisition, in practice may lead to moral conflicts. Doctors more or less consciously understand that the primary ethical requisition in their profession is patient's well-being--salus aegroti suprema lex esto. The above law in practice makes physicians anticipate the consequences of their action for patients. The notion of "patient's well-being" is relative and depends on patient's moral system. Thus doctors have to be cautious not to impose their moral system on patients.