In Newsweek magazine, Mack Lipkin wrote an article titled “Telling the Truth to Patients.” In this article he summarizes his belief that medical information should be hidden from the patient because it is impossible to be completely truthful. This action is justified because patients will not be able to understand the information, misinterpretations often occur, and some people simply do not want to know the truth. I disagree with Lipkin's thesis. I believe that doctors have a moral obligation to provide their patients with relevant information about their illness, unless the patient clearly states that they do not want to hear it. Patients should be given this information because medicine is patient-centered, communication is necessary to build trust in the patient-doctor relationship, and hiding the truth appears to be more harmful to the patient in the long run. A crucial point that Lipkin fails to recognize is that medicine is patient-centered. While medicine has changed through technological advances, healthcare coverage, and ethics, one thing has remained constant: medicine provides patient care. Beyond that, medicine (especially primary care) emphasizes treating the patient as a person, not as a diagnosis. In the story Being Mickey's Doctor, the pediatrician who treats ten-year-old Mickey learns valuable lessons about being humanistic and compassionate. Mickey was a talkative child who let Dr. Morhimann (the pediatrician) know the positives and negatives of his treatment. She complained when doctors conversed right outside her door, and she didn't like it when Dr. Morhimann spoke to Mickey's siblings about the disease in a way that made it seem as if the disease had taken Mickey's place. The main point... at the heart of the article... is you, not the doctor. In conclusion, doctors have a moral obligation to tell patients the truth about their illness, unless the patient clearly states that he does not want to know. Medicine is a field that works to cure the patient. This means that doctors are there to provide care, using skills and years of training to guide them towards a cure. This does not mean that a doctor should make decisions about patients without proper consent. Believing that patients will misunderstand the diagnosis or assuming that they don't want to know are not valid reasons to withhold information from the person. Communication is important in the medical field and is especially important when talking about an individual's health. With relevant, appropriate and humanistic communication, communicating the patient's diagnosis can and should be done thoughtfully.