Culture, cancer, and communication in Italy

Deborah R. Gordon

pp. 137-156

in: Beatrix Pfleiderer, Gilles Bibeau (eds), Anthropologies of medicine, Wiesbaden, Vieweg+Teubner, 1991

Abstract

It is still the dominant practice in Italy, but one definitely changing, not to inform cancer patients of their diagnosis, particularly if the outcome is uncertain. A medical practice, such as telling or not telling a diagnosis of cancer, is infused with social and cultural understandings and implications. It is not just a neutral technique nor does it belong exclusively to the realm of medicine. This presents an interesting situation, for increasingly practices current in North America find their way to Italy. Informing the patient of his or her diagnosis is exactly one of them. Bioethics is another. While informing already takes place more frequently in major cancer research and treatment centers in Italy (GIVIO 1986), the ideology of telling is spreading [1] and one can expect that normative practice will eventually follow.