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Not all doctors tell patients all options | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

Most of the 1,144 doctors who took part said professional duty requires that patients at least be informed of their options, even those the doctor finds immoral. But 14 percent of the physicians saw no obligation to detail such choices — an outlook some ethicists find troubling.

“That approach doesn’t even give a patient the option to access other physicians,” said R. Alta Charo, a professor of law and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin in Madison who was not involved in the study. “It’s a raw imposition of your personal beliefs on all those who come to you for professional services.”

The authors of the study, which appears in today’s edition of the New England Journal of Medicine, did not recommend regulatory action that would compel doctors to tell patients all the options. Instead, co-author Dr. John Lantos of the University of Chicago said the medical marketplace can resolve potential conflicts if patients adopt a “buyer beware” attitude.

“Patients have to be aware that they may not get all the information or treatments they’re legally due,” said Lantos, a professor of pediatrics and associate director of the the university’s MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics.

Lantos said his advice to patients would be: “Take our article in and show it to your doctor, talk about values, and say, ‘I need to know if your beliefs match mine.’ “

I am disappointed that instead of recommending compelling doctors to tell patients all the options they feel that the rest of us should adopt a buyer beware attitude. As the years have gone by some of us have learned to question our doctors and our treatments but that isn’t necessarily the norm. When I was growing up it was unthinkable to question your doctors. They were an absolute authority and acted as such. They still act that way today and many people would never question their doctors. Heck, I was at a doctor two years ago that was incredibly insulted that I asked about the side effects of a prescription he wanted me to take and chewed me out for it. Needless to say I don’t see him anymore but how many people would have walked away having been sufficiently spanked and never questioned his judgement again. They need to do a better job of teaching them in medical school that their personal prejudices shouldn’t affect the health care they provide.

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