It has been found that majority of the decisions taken for patients at the death bed are taken by their families and not by the doctor and this happens especially in the case of children and senior citizens.

Not only this, doctors also have to withhold the results from the patients on the request of patient’s family but under the law book it has been clearly mentioned that patients should be told about their condition honestly and he is the decision taker for himself that whether he has to give green signal to doctor for any further treatment or not. But, what happens in reality is something different as it is the parents or friends who take the decision on behalf of the patients and doctor have a little say on this matter.

A study was conducted with the name of ‘What Doctors Say About Care of the Dying’ by the Centre for Biomedical Ethics at the Singapore University in which 78 physicians were interviewed and they told the above things. Though this is against the law as patient is the one who takes decision for his treatment, doctors have to comply with situation. Doctors reveal that they agree because many times patient is not in the stage where he could take decisions for himself.