Question

What is an iatrogenic complication, what is Higgs' justification for always telling the truth to patients, and why are iatrogenic complications a challenge for his theory?

Answer 1

Iatrogenic complication:-

An iatrogenic complication was defined as an adverse effect that was not associated with the patients' underlying disease. Two ICU physicians who assessed all complications monitored patients during their entire hospitalization and a 6-month follow-up. Drug interactions and their adverse effects were excluded.

Roger Higgs, in his thoughtful article, On telling patients the truth raises the question whether honesty is as much a duty for doctors and nurses as it is for everyone else. He argues that lying is defensible in medical practice only at either end of the scale of importance: 'It may finally be decided that in a crisis there is no acceptable alternative, as when life is ebbing and truthfulness would bring certain disaster. Alternatively, the moral issue may appear so trivial as not to be worth considering (as, for example, when a doctor is called out at night by a patient who apologises by saying, "I hope you don't mind me calling you at this time, doctor", and the doctor replies, "No, not at all")'
But 'given the two ends of the spectrum of crisis and triviality, the vast middle range of communication', Higgs maintains, 'requires honesty.
Within the 'middle range' lack of candour does more harm than candour, Higgs maintains. But, to minimise the harm done through telling the truth, doctors and nurses must study how to tell it (at the right
time, in the right way, and if the news is distressing, with proper follow-up).