研究生英语预习课件TheDoctor27sDilemma.ppt

The Doctors Dilemma The Doctors Dilemma To Lie Or Not To Lie Should doctors ever lie to benefit their patients -- to speed recovery or to conceal the approach of death? Doctors confront such choices often and urgently. At times, they see important reasons to lie for the patients own sake; in their eyes, such lies differ sharply from self-serving ones. Studies show that most doctors sincerely believe that the seriously ill do not want to know the truth about their condition, and that informing them risks destroying their hope, so that they may recover more slowly, or deteriorate faster, perhaps even commit suicide. Service The third-party payer system has created a crisis in medicine. It has invaded the integrity of the doctor/patient relationship. They work for the organization that pays their salary, and they also work for the patient. There is now a certain lack of trust in these relationships.The doctor did not trust the patient. Now the patient does not trust the doctor, because he can never be sure whether whats being done is whats best for him or what best serves the company the doctor works for. Doctors feel burdened and overwhelmed by the decisions that are now expected of them. There are so many decisions we make now that used to be in the hands of fate. It used to be that somebody simply died. Now people have a cardiac arrest and theyre resuscitated. When do we resuscitate and when do we not? Drugs When treating terminally ill patients, should medics prescribe expensive drugs that offer a few more weeks – or help them enjoy what time they have left, free from invasive treatments? Its among the most difficult of conversations that doctors have with their patients. How do you tell someone the drugs arent working, that chemotherapy is futile or the side effects of treatment are likely to ruin what little time may be ahead? There is no denying it: this kind of conversation is hard to hear and difficult for doctors to initiate. And the climate of de