title: Disclosure of terminal illness to patients and families: diversity of governing codes in 14 Islamic countries.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The consistency of codes governing disclosure of terminal illness to patients and families in Islamic countries has not been studied until now.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To review available codes on disclosure of terminal illness in Islamic countries. DATA SOURCE AND EXTRACTION: Data were extracted through searches on Google and PubMed. Codes related to disclosure of terminal illness to patients or families were abstracted, and then classified independently by the three authors.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Codes for 14 Islamic countries were located. Five codes were silent regarding informing the patient, seven allowed concealment, one mandated disclosure and one prohibited disclosure. Five codes were silent regarding informing the family, four allowed disclosure and five mandated/recommended disclosure. The Islamic Organization for Medical Sciences code was silent on both issues.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Codes regarding disclosure of terminal illness to patients and families differed markedly among Islamic countries. They were silent in one-third of the codes, and tended to favour a paternalistic/utilitarian, family-centred approach over an autonomous, patient-centred approach.
authors.affiliation: Center for Clinical Studies and Empirical Ethic, King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Center, P.O Box #3354 (MBC 03), Riyadh 11211, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Hunida E
authors.initials: HE
authors.lastname: Abdulhameed
authors.forename: Muhammad M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Hammami
authors.forename: Elbushra A Hameed
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Mohamed
mesh_terms: D001294:Attitude to Health; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology; D026690:Ethics, Clinical; D005190:Family; D006076:Government; D006801:Humans; D007514:Islam; D026706:Paternalism; D028701:Patient Rights / Q000941:ethics*; D010361:Patients / Q000523:psychology; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D019452:Terminally Ill / Q000523:psychology*; D014342:Truth Disclosure