The CEU Department of Philosophy cordially invites you to a talk
by
Emma Bullock (King's College London)
on
'The Truth Hurts: Epistemic Paternalism in Medicine'
Friday, 30 May, 2014, 9.30 AM, Zrinyi 14, Room 412
ABSTRACT
Medical practitioners are obliged to tell patients the truth about their medical conditions, along with the risks and benefits of proposed treatments. There are, however, a number of reasons to suppose that the full disclosure of medical information can harm a patient’s best interests. Debate on the conflict between the disclosure of medical information and patient best interests has tended to emphasise the patient’s right to know. Specifically, it is argued that patients must always be fully informed, since to lie to or to deceive the patient would be wrongly paternalistic.
In this paper I argue for two claims. First, that treating the right to know as absolute in fact constitutes a form of epistemic paternalism, where epistemic paternalism is roughly defined as an unsolicited interference that aims to promote an individual’s epistemic good (for example, by promoting the acquisition of true beliefs). Second, pace Ahlstrom-Vij (2013), I argue that this particular form of epistemic paternalism is unlikely to be justified in a clinical context.