Legal Aspects of the Doctor-Patient Communication

Abstract

Communicating the information about the state of his/her health to the patient serves implementation of his/her subjective right to truth. In axiological justification of the right most often two arguments are referred to: the first of them indicates that because of the respect of the autonomy of the patient it is inevitable that he/she knows the truth about his/her state of health; and the second one assumes that complete information about the condition of the patient is an indispensable condition of the partner relationship between the medical staff and the patient.

By exercising the right to reliable information conditions are created for the patient to make conscious decisions in the treatment process. Information is also indispensable in the therapy process for achieving its aims. The condition for the patient’s proper cooperation with the medical staff is giving him/her proper information about the used procedures. The contemporary shape of the patient’s right to information about his/her state of health was undoubtedly influenced by consolidating the right to information on the ground of the State – citizen relation.