In medical ethics and clinical communication as applied to oncology and palliative care, this addresses the principle of patient autonomy as the governing standard when family members request that information (such as a cancer diagnosis or prognosis) be withheld from the patient, or when a family asks a clinician to substitute personal judgment ("what would you do") for the patient's own values. The core approach involves eliciting the patient's own preference for how much information they wish to receive, assessing existing understanding before disclosing new information, distinguishing the emotional subtext of a question from its literal content, and redirecting requests for the clinician's personal judgment toward an exploration of the patient's or family's own values and goals of care.
In medical ethics and clinical communication as applied to oncology and palliative care, this addresses the principle of patient autonomy as the governing standard when family members request that in…