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The right to information for the terminally ill patient

E Osuna¹, M D Pérez-Cárceles, M A Esteban

¹Department of Legal Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Murcia, Spain. eosuna@fcu.um.es

Journal of Medical Ethics

|May 29, 1998

Abstract

Objectives:

To analyse the attitudes of medical personnel towards terminally ill patients and their right to be fully informed.

Design:

Self-administered questionnaire composed of 56 closed questions.

Setting:

Three general hospitals and eleven health centres in Granada (Spain). The sample comprised 168 doctors and 207 nurses.

Results:

A high percentage of medical personnel (24.1%) do not think that informing the terminally ill would help them face their illness with greater serenity. Eighty-four per cent think the patient's own home is the best place to die: 8.9% of the subjects questioned state that the would not like to be informed of an incurable illness.

Conclusion:

In our opinion any information given should depend on the patient's personality, the stage of the illness and family circumstances. Our study confirms that a hospital is not the ideal environment for attending to the needs of the terminally ill and their families.

Keywords:

Death and Euthanasia Empirical Approach Professional Patient Relationship

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