Abstract
There are many instances when the patient should not be told that he is suffering from a very serious, possibly incurable disease. In such cases, one of the family members should be informed. On the other hand, I remember the times when no physician ever told his patient that he had tuberculosis because it was thought that this information would undermine the patient’s confidence in recovery. I have an open mind whether in the field of cancer an evolution is taking place comparable to the one that happened in the field of tuberculosis. Maybe that the younger generation of patients has lost its fear of cancer and will in the future be able to bear the truth about this disease.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1955 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Snapper, I. (1955). Other Times, Other Fears. In: Standard, S., Nathan, H. (eds) Should the Patient Know the Truth?. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-40485-0_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-40485-0_10
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-662-39421-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-662-40485-0
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive