[Education of terminally ill patients from the legal viewpoint]

The duty of doctors to inform their patients about their state of health and diagnosis is not as strict as the duty to inform about the risks of the treatment and the duty to give the patients correct medical instructions how to behave during the treatment. The negligent violation of this duty does generally not cause a criminal or civil liability. The doctor generally has the right to give this information in a most regardful way if a patient does not insist on a full information about diagnosis and prognosis. In case of the doctor's conviction that the patient is physically or psychically not capable to bear the truth, the doctor is entitled to be silent about the patient's real state of health.