Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1987
ISSN
0190-6593
Publisher
Western New England College, School of Law
Language
en-US
Abstract
Jay Katz introduces his remarkable and insightful book, The Silent World of Doctor and Patient, by recounting a portion of Solzhenitsyn's Cancer Ward. He describes an encounter between a patient, Oleg Kostoglotov, and his doctor, Dr. Ludmilla Afanasyevna. The doctor wanted to use experimental hormone treatment, but the patient refused. Katz argues that what made conversation impossible between them was the patient's undisclosed intention of leaving the hospital to treat himself with "a secret medicine, a mandrake root from Issyk Kul." He could not trust the doctor with this information because the doctor would make the decision for the patient in any event, because the doctor believed, "doctors are entitled to that right ... without that right there'd be no such thing as medicine."'
Recommended Citation
George J. Annas,
Death and the Magic Machine: Informed Consent to the Artificial Heart
,
in
9
Western New England Law Review
89
(1987).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/faculty_scholarship/1211
