Some media reported that about 70% of Chinese cancer patients are concealed by their family members. In fact, it is not legally reasonable for family members to conceal their illness from cancer patients, nor is it in line with the subjective wishes of most patients, which may aggravate the psychological burden of patients and even bring negative impact on treatment. Another side of the topic: family members concealing cancer from patients is not scientific Introduction: In China, many family members of cancer patients conceal their true condition from patients, believing that concealing their condition from patients is more conducive to maintaining patients’ quality of life and cancer treatment. Some media reported that about 70% of Chinese cancer patients have their disease concealed from them by their family members. In fact, it is neither legal nor the subjective desire of most patients for their families to conceal their conditions from cancer patients, which may aggravate the psychological burden of patients and even bring negative impact on treatment. Sixty seconds to read the topic: Some media reported that about 70% of Chinese cancer patients have their disease concealed by their family members. In fact, it is not legally reasonable for family members to conceal their illness from cancer patients, nor is it in line with the subjective wishes of most patients, which may aggravate the psychological burden of patients and even bring negative impact on treatment. The concept of informed consent comes from the common law system, and the theoretical basis of its legislation is the patient’s autonomy and self-determination. Any competent patient has the right to decide on matters related to his or her health, even if these decisions are detrimental to his or her health. Therefore, only the patient has the right to exercise autonomy over his or her own body; no one else, including the patient’s family, the patient’s institution, the doctor, the health care provider, or even the government, has the right to exercise that right. For patients who have the capacity to consent, their right to informed consent cannot be replaced or denied by anyone. The U.S. Patient’s Bill of Rights of 1973 emphasizes the patient’s right to informed consent: “Patients have the right to be informed about the diagnosis, treatment, prediction, and risks associated with the disease; the right to accept or refuse care and treatment; and the right to self-determination after being fully informed of the benefits and harms.” The right to self-determination after being fully informed. Specifically in medical practice, U.S. health care professionals will inform the patient of the diagnosis and treatment plan in the first instance, and let the patient decide how to treat and when to inform his or her family. This is well portrayed in the first season of “Desperado”. In China, the Tort Liability Law, passed in 2010, also defines the subject of informed consent in medical relationships as the patient. Although the law also stipulates that “if it is inappropriate to explain to the patient, the patient’s close relatives shall be informed and their written consent shall be obtained,” in the spirit of patient autonomy and self-determination, the circumstances in which it is “inappropriate to explain to the patient” should be understood to mean that the patient When the patient is totally or partially incapacitated. Therefore, it is inappropriate for a relative to exercise the right to informed consent on behalf of the patient when the patient has the capacity to consent. The core concept of the right to informed consent for cancer patients is to “maximize the protection of patients’ personal and spiritual interests”. However, the widespread phenomenon of patients’ relatives exercising patients’ right to informed consent in Chinese medical practice makes the goal of “protecting patients’ personal and spiritual interests” not necessarily achievable: on the one hand, only the person concerned has the right to make decisions related to human life and health interests, and the agent is not the person concerned and makes decisions about patients’ life and health. On the other hand, when relatives exercise the right to informed consent on behalf of the patient, they may do so to the detriment of the patient’s life and health interests because of a lack of medical knowledge or because the interests of the patient’s relatives and the patient do not coincide. In terms of the subjective wishes of cancer patients themselves, most cancer patients want to know the truth about their illness as soon as possible In the UK, a study conducted in 2001 also showed that 87% of the British patients surveyed, regardless of good or bad information, wanted to know as much information as possible about their illness, and up to 98% of British patients wanted to know whether their illness was cancer. In Japan, a survey organized by Fukuoka University also showed that 85.7% of the Japanese cancer patients surveyed wanted to be informed about their condition. The desire of cancer patients for true information about their disease is not limited to the UK and Japan either: according to a survey of 1,023 Chinese cancer patients and their families conducted by West China Medical College of Sichuan University, 90.8% of Chinese cancer patients surveyed believed that early stage cancer patients should be informed of the truth about their disease, 60.5% believed that advanced cancer patients should be informed of the truth about their disease, and The vast majority of patients and their family members choose to let medical workers fulfill the obligation to inform. In terms of long-term effects, concealing the disease from patients’ relatives does not help maintain the patients’ quality of life, but may increase the patients’ psychological burden. Those patients’ families who advocate keeping the cancer diagnosis confidential or only partially disclose the diagnosis usually believe that informing the patients of the cancer diagnosis will make the patients feel desperate and helpless, while concealing the cancer diagnosis will help the patients maintain their quality of life. However, several empirical studies by scholars in the UK, India, and Turkey have shown that patients’ quality of life and mental status did not change significantly before and after learning of their condition; a Japanese empirical study also showed that giving cancer patients vague explanations about their condition did not bring additional mental stability to the patients. In China, a study of 58 cancer patients in Shanxi Province in 2006 showed that the more fully patients were informed about their disease, the lower the level of depression. On the other hand, concealing the disease from cancer patients does not help patients’ treatment, but may cause suspicion, anxiety and depression, which in turn affects patients’ quality of life and mental status. According to a survey conducted by Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 58.0% of cancer patients are very dissatisfied with the medical staff for concealing their illnesses, and 45.1% of cancer patients are angry with their family members for knowing their real illnesses but not themselves. A study at a hospital in Devon, UK, also showed that when a patient begins to have a high suspicion of malignancy but is not confirmed, his anxiety is even higher than that of a patient who has been informed of his malignancy. Concealing a cancer patient’s condition also has a negative impact on the treatment and psychological support provided by health care professionals. Cancer treatment is usually a long-term collaborative process between patients and health care professionals, and communication and trust between patients and health care professionals are essential. Concealing a patient’s condition can tie the hands of healthcare professionals and affect the communication and trust between the patient and the doctor, thus negatively affecting the patient’s treatment. A study by the Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine pointed out that in order to help patients’ families conceal their conditions from patients, all relevant health care workers had to be unified, and health care visits had to be changed to avoid patients and conceal the names and true functions of medications from patients, all of which prevented nursing staff from communicating with patients in a deep, sincere and effective manner. In addition, according to a survey conducted by Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, nearly half of the patients believe that the medical staff’s concealment of their condition from them affects their trust in the medical staff. On the other hand, concealing the condition also prevents healthcare professionals from providing the psychological support that cancer patients need. Without the ability to tell patients the truth about their illness, health care providers have no way to provide them with targeted psychological support, further increasing the psychological burden on patients. It is impractical to conceal the disease from cancer patients for a long time: cancer patients can always learn the truth from traces. Concealing the disease from cancer patients is like directing a long-term, all-weather drama: it is obviously impractical to expect the patient’s family, medical staff and even the patient’s friends to have excellent acting skills and seamless choreography. The patient will always guess a thing or two through the unnatural expressions of the family, the unconscious words of the medical staff, and the various examination reports. In fact, medical professionals often do not choose to hide their illness from their relatives when they are suffering from cancer: they know very well that such “well-intentioned lies” are simply futile.