Truth Telling to Life-Threatened and Dying Patients in Israel: Can Legislation Improve it?

Truth-telling by doctors to patients is a basic moral rule in developed healthcare systems. Not to tell the truth jeopardizes staff-patient trust, undermines the patient’s capacity for autonomy, and deprives the terminally-ill of a ‘good death’. Yet non-truth-telling is still common. This study explores and measures the extent of non-truth-telling to cancer patients in Israel’s modern health care system, why it happens and what consequences it leads to.