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Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a summary of the following passage. You should write about 150 words and remember to write clearly on the COMPOSITION SHEET.ª¥
To Lie or not to Lie — the Doctor’s Dilemma
Should doctors ever lie to benefit their patients — to speed recovery or to conceal the approach of death? Doctors confront such choices often and urgently. At times, they see important reasons to lie for the patient’s own sake; in their eyes, such lies differ sharply from self-serving ones.
Studies show that most doctors sincerely believe that the seriously ill do not want to know the truth about their condition, and that informing them risks destroying their hope, so that they may recover more slowly, or deteriorate faster, perhaps even commit suicide. As one physician wrote, “Ours is a profession which traditionally has been guided by a precept that transcends the virtue of uttering the truth for truth’s sake, and that is as far as possible, do no harm.”
Armed with such a precept, a number of doctors may slip into deceptive practices that they assume will “do no harm” and may well help their patients. They may prescribe innumerable placebos, sound more encouraging than the facts warrant, and distort grave news, especially to the incurably ill and the dying.
But the illusory nature of the benefits such deception is meant to produce is now coming to be documents. Studies show that, contrary to the beliefs of many physicians, an overwhelming majority of patients do want to be told the truth, even about grave illness, and feel betrayed when they learn that they have been misled. We are also learning that truthful information, humanely conveyed, helps patients cope with illness: helps them tolerate pain better, need less medicine, and even recover faster after surgery.
Not only do lies not provide the “help” hoped for by advocates of benevolent deception; they invade the autonomy of patients and render them unable to make informed choices concerning their own health, including the choice of whether to be a patient in the first place. We are becoming increasingly aware of all that can befall patients in the course of their illness when information is denied or distorted.
Dying patients especially — who are easiest to mislead and most often kept in the dark — can then not make decisions about the end of life: about whether or not they should enter a hospital, or have surgery; about where and with whom they should spend their remaining time; about how they should bring their affairs to a close and take leave.
Lies also do harm to those who tell them: harm to their integrity and, in the long run, to their credibility. Lies hurt their colleagues as well. The suspicion of deceit undercuts the work of the many doctors who are honest with their patients; it contributes to the spiral of lawsuits and of “defensive medicine”, and thus it injures, in turn, the entire medical profession.
There is urgent need to debate this issue openly. Not only in medicine, but in other professions as well, practitioners may find themselves repeatedly in difficulty where serious consequences seem avoidable only through deception. Yet the public has every reason to be wary of professional deception, for such practices are peculiarly likely to become deeply rooted, to spread, and to erode trust. Neither in medicine, nor in law, government, or the social sciences can there be comfort in the old saying, “What you don’t know can’t hurt you.”

17£®To Lie or not to Lie — the Doctor's Dilemma
Doctors are often confronted such a choice: to lie or not to lie to their patient. Studies show that they often believe it is reasonable to lie for the patient’s own sake. Most doctors believe that the seriously ill do not want to know the truth about their condition, and if they tell them the truth, they may lose their hope. Because of such a belief, many doctors may tell “white lies” to their patients.
But now facts are proving that these doctors are wrong. Actually, an overwhelming majority of patients do want to know the truth. We are also learning that truthful information can help patients deal with their disease if we tell it in a proper way.
Lies cannot help the patients. Besides, they invade their autonomy and make them unable to make sound decisions. Lies also do harm to those who tell them, their colleagues and the entire medical profession. Therefore, we need to debate this issue openly and put an end to professional deception.