評論
打印
Not only do lies not provide the "help" hoped for by advocates of benevolent deception; they invade the autonomy of patients and render them unable to make informed choices concerning their own health, including the choice of whether to be patient in the first place. We are becoming increasingly aware of all that can befall patients in the course of their illness when information is denied or distorted.
謊言不僅不能提供鼓吹"仁慈"欺騙的人們所希望的那種"幫助"，它還侵犯了病人的個人自由，使他們不能對有關自己健康的問題作出明達的選擇，包括要不要就醫這一首要的選擇。我們越來越意識到，病人發病期間，在不知病情或未被如實地告知病情的情況下，他們會遭到什么樣的不幸。
Dying patients especially - who are easiest to mislead and most often kept in the dark - canthen not make decisions about the end of life: about whether or not they should enter a hospital, or have surgery; about where and with whom they should spend their remaining time; about how they should bring their affairs to a close and take leave.
特別是瀕臨死亡的病人-他們最易受騙也最會被人蒙在鼓里-因此而不能作出臨終前的種種有關抉擇: 是否要住進醫院，或進行手術，在何處與何人度過所剩下的一點時間，以及如何處理完自己的事務而后與世長辭。
Lies also do harm to those who tell them: harm to their integrity and, in the long run, to their credibility. Lies hurt their colleagues as well. The suspicion of deceit undercuts the work of the many doctors who are scrupulously hones with their patients; it contributes to the spiral of lawsuits and of "defensive medicine," and thus it injures, in turn, the entire medical profession.
謊言也傷害說謊的人，損害他們的誠實，并最終損害他們的信譽。謊言還傷害他們的同事。由于病人懷疑有欺騙行為，許多對病人十分開誠布公的醫生的工作也因此受到影響。病人的不信任使醫療訴訟案增多，造成醫生避免風險的"防御性診治"增多，而這些又進而有損于整個醫療事業。
