ArticleGhana medical journal2008
Don't Lie but Don't Tell the Whole Truth: The Therapeutic Privilege - Is it Ever Justified?
Article in Ghana medical journal, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed.
- Telling is Caring: Prioritizing the Best Interests of Dying Children.HEC forum : an interdisciplinary journal on hospitals' ethical and legal issues · 2026Article
- Practical dilemmas and communication reconstruction of patients' right to informed consent under the Civil Code.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Truth-telling and devastating disclosures Navigating the tension between ethical and cultural obligations in Saudi Arabia.BMC medical ethics · 2025Article
- In Defence of Causing Patients to Worry: Ethical Issues in the Communication of Diagnostic Uncertainty.Bioethics · 2025Article
- Misattributed paternity discovery: A critique of medical organizations' recommendations.American journal of human genetics · 2025Review
- 'None of Them Know Me': A Qualitative Study of the Implications of Locum Doctor Working for Patient Experience.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2024Article
- Instrument fracture in periodontal therapy: ethical disclosure and clinical management - a case report.BMC oral health · 2024Article
- Knowledge of radiation exposure associated with common trauma imaging modalities among orthopaedic surgeons, emergency medicine physicians, and general surgeons in the United States.World journal of emergency medicine · 2023Article
- Conflicts and Challenges of Truth-Telling in Dentistry: A Case-Based Ethical Analysis.Frontiers in dentistry · 2022Article
- Attitudes of Physicians in Jordan Towards Non-Disclosure of Health Information.Sultan Qaboos University medical journal · 2021Article
- A Neurologist's Guide to REM Sleep Behavior Disorder.Frontiers in neurology · 2020Review
- Association of Preoperative Disclosure of Resident Roles With Informed Consent for Cataract Surgery in a Teaching Program.JAMA ophthalmology · 2019Article
- Should non-disclosures be considered as morally equivalent to lies within the doctor-patient relationship?Journal of medical ethics · 2016Article
- The dilemma of revealing sensitive information on paternity status in Arabian social and cultural contexts: telling the truth about paternity in Saudi Arabia.Journal of bioethical inquiry · 2012Article
- Ethics and electronic health information technology.Ghana medical journal · 2011Article
- The Ethical Dilemma of Balancing Confidentiality and Duty to Protect: A Case Report of Comorbid Schizophrenia and Cannabis Use Disorder with Homicidal Thoughts.Nigerian medical journal : journal of the Nigeria Medical AssociationArticle
- The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth: Therapeutic privilege.Journal of postgraduate medicineArticle
- Post-truth era and cardiology: After ORBITA, before CABANA.Indian heart journalArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
This position paper will show that withholding information from a competent patient is a violation of the doctor's role as a fiduciary and is not ever justified. As a fiduciary, the doctor's relationship with his or her patient must be one of candour since it will be impossible for the patient to trust the doctor without regular candid information regarding the patient's condition and its outcome. Although the use of the therapeutic privilege has been recognized by several courts and is supported by scientific literature, I will explore why withholding information from a competent patient is a violation of the doctor's role as a fiduciary and as such is not legally or ethically defensible.While some courts have recognized the therapeutic privilege as a way of promoting patient wellbeing and respecting the Hippocratic dictum of "primum non nocere" {or first do no harm}, my position is that this is not ethically justifiable. Since information is a powerful tool for both harm and good, consciously withholding information from competent patients disempowers them and requires greater justification than patient welfare.Even though there is legal recognition of therapeutic privilege, it is not applicable on ethical grounds. In addition to disrespecting autonomy, withholding information from competent patients does not benefit them in the long run and can actually cause more harm than good. Consequently, a doctor who withholds information from a competent patient unless in the exceptional case of patient waiver violates the ethical principles of autonomy, beneficence and nonmaleficence.
Indexed as
Identifiers
19452024PMC2673833What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.