Informing Terminally ill Patients in Yemen

Abstract

Biomedicine's ability to postpone death and prolong life generates ethical dilemmas that are best answered in their cultural context. Medical anthropological fieldwork conducted in Yemen has allowed for an exploration of doctors' and religious scholars' responses to the interesting cross-cultural issue of whether to inform patients of their terminal conditions. This research is part of a larger study on Yemeni patients and family members who leave their country for reliable, high-tech medical care only available abroad.