The Terminal Patient's Right to Know: Psychological, Ethical and Judaic Perspectives


 

Publication Date: January 1986

Publisher: Jewish Communal Service Association of North America

Author(s): Solomon Schimmel

Research Area: Culture and religion; Health

Keywords: Ethics; Health; Terminally Ill

Type: Report

Coverage: United States

Abstract:

Psychological assumptions about human behavior are central to the question of disclosure to terminal patients by physicians, nurses, mental health professionals, philosophers, theologians and legal scholars. In addition to the clarification of theoretical aspects of the issues, further empirical research on the reaction of patients and other concerned parties to disclosure and to non-disclosure is necessary if we wish to make ethical choices and decisions that will be based upon more accurate knowledge of actual human behavior rather than upon speculative assumptions and generalizations about such behavior.