Importance Of Autonomy In Health Care

Often times when a patient has a health problem or concern, the health care professional will inform them of the potential diagnosis, circumstances, and treatments. However, this can become a predicament when that patient is terminally ill, for example, with cancer, and the health care professionals face the dilemma of telling the patient of their outcome. There is no easy way to go about this. Still, health professionals have the responsibility of telling patients if they are terminally ill –should they choose to know – because otherwise it can weaken the trust between the patient and their health care providers, take away from patient autonomy, and prevent proper closure for the patient that he or she may want.

A patient should be told

All capable patients have the right “to make informed decisions about their own medical care” (Lowry). Withholding this information from a patient can limit informed consent, a fundamental ethical principle of health care (Lowry). Informed consent from a patient is necessary before a health care provider can provide treatment, and when a health care provider goes ahead and makes decisions for a patient because they want to prevent the patient from finding out they are terminally ill, this becomes an ethical and legal issue. As a result, patient autonomy is diminished here. Moreover, this may keep the patient questioning about what is going to happen to them and what options they have for their treatment. With a terminal diagnosis, there may still be treatments or medications that could be taken to lessen the severity of their condition for a less painful or more comfortable death. As the saying goes, "you don’t know what you don’t know.” Since the patient may not be fully aware of their diagnosis in the case that their health care provider does not disclose this information to them, the patient would not even know there might be other options. If the patient consents to knowing the state of their condition, he or she should know about these options to give them a role in making decisions about their care and

In a case seen in December 2013, 24-year-old Vickie Harvey “had fought leukaemia twice - but went rapidly downhill after being told 'in graphic detail ' how she was going to die” (Hodgekiss). Her parents started a campaign for patients to have a choice on whether they want to know if they are terminally ill because they stated her daughter gave up all hope for life after she found out about her diagnosis (Hodgekiss). Her doctor believed that if Harvey had not known, she would not have been able to prepare herself and take appropriate measures to understand her prognosis (Hodgekiss). Reading the circumstances surrounding this case, it is important to give the patient a choice on if they would like to know the state of their condition, and how much they would like to know. They do not have to know all the details if they choose not to. At least this way the patient knows they have the choice to know and they do not continue to feel like information is being hidden from them. They should also have an equal choice to not know if they desire. This follows all ethical and legal aspects of patient autonomy while still considering their cultural background and family’s