Part 2. A medical question, should doctors always tell the truth?
Keywords
trust, patient, doctor, medical ethics.
Vocabulary
given, commentator, deceive, rosy, chemotherapy, withhold, outright, paternalistic, filter, prescribe, placebo, refill, white lie, consent, diaphragm, wean off.
A. The following sentences contain vocabulary that you will hear in the listening passage. Listen and try to get the meaning of any words you don't know from the context.
1. There are actually several situations when a doctor might be tempted to be less than truthful with a patient.
2. There are times when a doctor might want to paint a more optimistic or a rosy picture of a patient's condition so that the patient won't be unnecessarily frightened.
3. Some people believe that to withhold information from a person is the same as outright lying.
In both cases, the doctor is being paternalistic by not allowing the patient the right to know and decide.
4. Doctors don't want to overburden the patient with too many details that could just be frightening and not useful.
5. A patient came to see the doctor to get a refill of prescription for sleeping pill.
The patient recognized that he was addicted to the sleeping medicine,
but when he tried to stop taking the medicine, he couldn't sleep and ended up taking a sleeping pill. Later the doctors tried to wean the patient from the medicine.
6. An important issue is whether doctors are ever justified in telling these little white lies in order to benefit the patient.
7. Chemotherapy has several side effects, including physical weakness and loss of hair.
8. When testing the effectiveness of a new drug, researchers conduct clinical trials on two groups, one group receiving the drug, and the second group receiving a placebo.
9. A doctor's cultural, religious, educational and economic background shapes how she interprets the world around her.
The background acts like a filter that changes and shapes how she perceives things.
10. Most doctors in the United States are reluctant to deceive patients, they believe it is almost always better to tell the truth.