Harmful Truths and Useful Lies? Is it always wrong to lie to patients?

Date:: Friday 22nd November 2019
Time:: 6pm-7.30pm
Venue:: Senior Common Room, St Mary's University

Truth-telling is posited as a core principle of health care in many current codes of ethics and it underpins much recent case law. However, health professionals are likely to face scenarios in practice which call this principle into question.

This lecture will examine truth-telling and lying as contested concepts, tracing how their standing in health care has changed over time. There will be consideration of different ethical traditions and how they inform approaches to truth-telling.

It will be argued that while truth-telling requires no justification, there are exceptional cases when ethical reflection may support lying to a patient.