Cultural Difference and Medical Care

Wangensteen. Dr. Cave subscribes to the belief that "not to know the truth will cause the least mental anguish to many patients... ." Dr. Wangensteen, on the other hand, makes a strong plea for telling the truth, saying that the patient sooner or later guesses what is being hid from him and then loses trust in his physician and is bewildered and hurt by the insincere behavior of his friends and family. As might be expected when two dozen people are invited to submit chapters, the various contributions in this book are uneven. Dr. Snapper, a physician, responds with a single inconclusive and uninformative paragraph. Dr. Bluestone, a hospital administrator, wanders around for a time and concludes with something on the virtue of obtaining permission for autopsy. The two chapters written from the legal point of view have little value here. Generally, however, the discussions are worth while; and the contributions of Samuel Standard, a physician, and Ilse Wolff, a nurse, are especially good.