Your Patient Has Been Admitted for a Liver Biopsy Because

Multiple Choice

Your patient has been admitted for a liver biopsy because the physician believes the patient may have liver cancer. The family has told both you and the physician that if the patient is terminal, the family does not want the patient to know. The biopsy results are positive for an aggressive form of liver cancer and the patient asks you repeatedly what the results of the biopsy show. What strategy can you use to give ethical care to this patient?

A) Obtain the results of the biopsy and provide them to the patient.
B) Tell the patient that only the physician knows the results of the biopsy.
C) Promptly communicate the patients request for information to the family and the physician.
D) Tell the patient that the biopsy results are not back yet in order temporarily to appease him.