Dissecting 'Deception'

摘要

From the days of Plato and Socrates, via John Gregory and Thomas Percival in the 18th century and William Osier in the 20th, the most esteemed doctors have deceived their patients with good intentions. Today, however, the consensus on the legitimacy of deception in Western medical practice is clear: Doctors should never deceive their patients. Whether this absolute rule is morally sound or translated into clinical practice is doubtful, but I shall not, in this paper, address the ethical and empirical issues on truth telling and deception. Instead, I shall dissect the concept of deception, eval- uating various possible definitions and their limitations, and propose a new definition that embraces both acts and omissions.