Other Cultural Dilemmas

• How Much Bad News Should the Patient Receive?
• Head of the family may be given the bad news about an illness and the patient protected.
• Role of the Extended Family? (The Issue of Proxy)
• Extended family has a legal share of the deceased person’s estate.
• The persons making decisions may be second or third degree relatives.
• Patient Choice Versus Dependence On Physician?
• Two types of behavior
• Unquestioning acceptance of physician advice
• Suspicion that results in repetitive questions
• How Many Visitors and Calls?
• “Visiting the poor and needy and the sick is your special duty because a more meritorious work you can’t perform”
  - Saying Of The Prophet (PBUH)
• Visiting the Sick
• Allah (god) shall say on the day of judgment: "O son of Adam! I was sick but you did not visit me." Man will reply, "my Lord! How could I visit a you when you are the lord of all the worlds." Allah will say, "did you not know that so and so from among my servants (human beings) was sick and you never visited him. Did you not know that if you had visited you would have found me there?"
  - Saying of prophet Muhammad (PBUH).