末期 • 臨終患者에의 病況眞實通告를 둘러싼 是是非非 — 國內 醫科大學 臨床專任敎授들의 境遇 ᅳ

Attitudes of Korean Physicians Toward Telling-Truth to The Dying Patient

The decision to tell or not to tell a patient he is terminally illed and is dying is largely an indidual matter, varying with personalities involved, and opinions vary as to the best polyicy. Tqe author has reviewed various studies on this subject, in which some has taken the view that all dying patients should be told the absolute truth and some has taken the opposite. This study tried to find out what attitudes Korean physicians have toward telling-truth. The questionnaires concerning those attitudes and policy were mailed in 1979 to a sample of 600 physicians who were full-time faculty staffs in clinical medicine among 14 medical schools in Korea, and after receiving 156 physicians’ responses the author reported the following results ; 1. 5096 of the physicians either never tell a patient he has a terminal illness or usually do not tell; 18% either always tell or usually toll; 32% do not have a definite policy on it. 2. Those attitudes of the physicians seem not being affected by their religions. 3. 6296 of the physicians are in favor of being told the truth upon their impending death. 4. Two most frequent rationales of telling-truth to the dying patient are for the psychological preparation of death by the patient and for the right of the patient to know, while the rationale of the opposite opinion is for the fear of severe psychic trauma, anxiety, depression, refusal of the treatment and possible suicide. 5. As for who should be the first imformer to the patient in case of telling-truth, 52% of the physicians choose the treating physicians and 3896 chooes the relatives. 6. As their clinical experiences increase and as they are getting older, Korean physicians tend to increasingly withhold the truth to the dying patient, up to the point of 30 years of experiences from when the percentage of the physicians who tell the truth sharply increases.