Should your doctor lie to you about your health? Absolutely not!

A health professional may consider lying to your about your health for any number of reasons—you are semiconscious, you can’t handle the bad news. But a paper out in the Archives of Medicine and Health Review says there is “no justification” for health professionals to tell lies to their patients. “A lie has the inherent […]

A health professional may consider lying to your about your health for any number of reasons—you are semiconscious, you can’t handle the bad news.

But a paper out in the Archives of Medicine and Health Review says there is “no justification” for health professionals to tell lies to their patients.

“A lie has the inherent danger that threatens health system including damaging a trusting relationship, professional integrity and health care,” writes Abdulkabir Ayanniyi of the department of ophthalmology at University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Gwagwalada.

It is embarrassing, shocking, elicits the feeling of betrayal—and there will be plenty of guilt to go round in a health system that already suffers image and welfare crisis.

“A lie interferes with grief, a natural psychological coping mechanism that protects the patient against bad news. This grief period has five states: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. This underscores why health professionals should tell the truth about critical health conditions,” says Ayanniyi.

Studies show most patients prefer truth on their health conditions. Lying to a patient is paternalistic and violates their autonomy, which is a gold standard in health, argues Ayanniyi.

Lying is a not a duty to a health worker. “It treats patients as a means and no an end, thus it fails to respect patient autonomy,” he says.

In the universe of the snowballing lie, just one has bad consequences, which are “not good to the patient, health professionals and the health system.”

Finally, lying is not virtuous of a health worker. It is dangerous. “Harmless lies are the slippery slope to lies that may cost lives,” says Ayanniyi.