TELLING THE PATIENT
SIR,—When Mr. Dickson Wright says he is 'a great believer in carrying the patient along in ignorance' he surely only shows his own ignorance: As to it being 'an impertinence to tell a man that he is about to die'—of course it is, for the simple reason that no doctor is an infallible judge of when that will be! Long before a patient shows signs that the end may be near a doctor has usually had a private talk with near relatives. It ins surely then for those who are nearest and dearest to decide what is best to be said or done.
Why is it that so many doctors act as if their patient automatically loses his intelligence with his physical health? The patient, when faced with serious illness, enters a hitherto unknown world which often heightens his perception in a way that could be a very valuable addition to the doctor's technical skill. When doctors realise that a patient's body is his own, as is his mind and soul, then they will cease to think or talk in terms of what they will or will not tell him. Instead they will consult with him from the very start in such a way that will make nonsense of this old idea of knowledge on the one hand and ignorance on the other.—Yours faithfully,
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