Tag: truth in medicine
-
The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth: But to what end?
Hugh Tunstall-PedoeDundee, Scotland Different variants of the doctors’ Hippocratic Oath swear to a virtuous life, honoring their patients and respecting their confidences, but not specifically promising to tell them the truth! Until recent decades it was not uncommon for doctors to avoid telling their patients specifically what was wrong, if serious, in order to avoid…
-
The benefit of literature to a medical student
Martin ConwillUnited Kingdom In a letter to Benjamin Bailey in 1817, John Keats, who only one year prior was a medical student himself, wrote: “I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the heart’s affections and the truth of imagination – what the imagination sees as beauty must be truth.”1 This proclamation can be…