The Right To The Truth

Provocative book reveals wide-spread abuse of cancer patients’ rights, to protect them from exploitation.

Should all patients be informed when they have been diagnosed with cancer? If the answer is “yes,” then Who should break the bad news to them? And How is such frightening news best delivered?  How much of the truth can a patient handle?

Patients’ fundamental, inalienable right to know the true status of their condition ought to be guaranteed the world over. Yet this right is routinely violated. In Greece, for example, cancer patients are frequently kept in the dark about their true condition, even as they are undergoing treatment. The problem is hardly limited to Greece, however. This right is routinely disregarded all over the globe, and the consequences are appalling.

In “The Right To The Truth,” the author presents Counterexamples inspired by actual events observed during his 33 years of clinical experience as a thoracic surgeon, and he addresses each scenario with well-crafted Arguments in favor of the patients’ Right to know :

► for Trust

► for Protection from predators and those who would exploit vulnerable patients

► for understanding that Sacrifices are sometimes required to achieve cure

► for acquiring well-founded Hope 

► for Overcoming fear of the unknown


The book :

► offers supportive advice to close family members of cancer patients, as it is usually they who shoulder the burden of deciding whether or not to have their loved one informed.

► offers thought-provoking ideas for the humanitarians who care for patients suffering from cancer or similar serious diseases. Physicians, nurses, psychologists, clergy, and friends are all urged to be truthful with patients; lying ultimately leads only to suffering.

► repudiates hypocritical arguments that claim withholding the truth from patients “spares them avoidable distress,” when the exact opposite is true. The hypocrisy behind brazen deceit inevitably becomes the source of harm to the patient. Myriad unethical, even illegal, wrongdoings are exposed that they should be banned from clinical practice once and for all.—