Physicians should use evidence-based guidelines as a starting point to make sound clinical treatment decisions for a patient's individual medical needs.
Physicians can ethically withhold information in situations where full disclosure of a diagnosis or treatment would cause great psychological harm to the patient.
Readers are referred to an article by Neil Farber et al in the Archives of Internal Medicine to discuss whether it is appropriate for physicians to administer lethal injections for capital punishment when medical society policies forbid physician participation.