大学英语4 第5课.docVIP

大学英语精读第四册05 大耳朵英语　 　 2005-09-30 00:38:17　 【打印】 Previous Unit | Next Unit | Back 　Unit Five 　　Click the button to listen to the text　　Is it ever proper for a medical doctor to lie to his patient? Should he tell a patient he is dying? These questions seem simple enough, but it is not so simple togive a satisfactory answer to them. Now a new light isshed on them.　　TO LIE OR NOT TO LIE---THE DOCTORS DILEMMA　Sissela BokShould doctors ever lie to benefit their patients -- to speed recoveryor to conceal the approach of death? In medicine as in law, government, andother lines of work, the requirements of honesty often seem dwarfed bygreater needs: the need to shelter from brutal news or to uphold a promiseof secrecy; to expose corruption or to promote the public interest.What should doctors say, for example, to a 46-year-old man coming in fora routine physical checkup just before going on vacation with his familywho, though he feels in perfect health, is found to have a form of cancerthat will cause him to die within six months? Is it best to tell him thetruth? If he asks, should the doctors deny that he is ill, or minimize thegravity of the illness? Should they at least conceal the truth until afterthe family vacation?Doctors confront such choices often and urgently. At times, they seeimportant reasons to lie for the patients own sake; in their eyes, suchlies differ sharply from self-serving ones.Studies show that most doctors sincerely believe that the seriouslyill do not want to know the truth about their condition, and that informingthem risks destroying their hope, so that they may recover more slowly, ordeteriorate faster, perhaps even commit suicide. As one physician wrote:Ours is a profession which traditionally has been guided by a preceptthat transcends the virtue of uttering the truth for truths sake, and thatis `as far as possible do no harm. Armed with such a precept, a number of doctors may slip into decepti