Truth, Trust and Medicine

How should doctors resolve conflicts between their duty to be truthful and their other duties? What does the duty to be truthful actually involve? Is lying for the benefit of patients a betrayal of trust? Is the deliberate concealment of truth necessarily dishonest? Jennifer Jackson investigates the notions of trust and honesty in medicine. She questions whether honesty and openness are of equal importance in maintaining the trust necessary in a doctor-patient relationship. The book begins with the assumption that doctors, nurses and counsellors have a basic duty to be worthy of the trust their patients place in them. Yet our understanding of what being trustworthy means, in the practices of modern medicine, is confused and uncertain. Doctor-patient relationships have recently come under serious scrutiny in ethical debates over issues such as: withholding information, obtaining consent, and employing covert practices in psychiatric, palliative and paediatric contexts. This book boldly raises these questions which disturb our very modern notions of a patient's autonomy, self-determination and informed consent. Truth, Trust and Medicine will be of interest to all those in medical ethics and applied philosophy, and a valuable resource for practitioners of medicine.Jackson, Jennifer is the author of 'Truth, Trust and Medicine', published 2001 under ISBN 9780415185486 and ISBN 0415185483.