In the book, the author searches for fixed and unambiguously defined normative signposts to help resolve the dilemma of the patient's right to truth and his or her well-being: Where does the boundary between truth and the patient's well-being lie? This question requires the translation of the generally formulated term 'truth' into a more precise definition in the form of the moral category of 'truthfulness' and its practical applications. Here, however, medicine goes beyond the limits of its scientific competence and is condemned to an interdisciplinary collaboration with ethics as a philosophy of morality.
Ethics is a methodologically worldview-driven discipline, which implies a variety and diversity of practical solutions. In the Polish ethical-medical literature, with regard to the issue of informing the patient in terminal conditions, the most widespread is the theory of medical "ethics of four principles: respect for the autonomy of the human person, non-maleficence, beneficence and justice'. These principles, taken on their own, are of course not objectionable. However, Dr Pawlik, in subjecting this theory to critical reflection, shows that, based on the materialist premises of a relativistically oriented medical ethics, it proves incapable of clear-cut solutions. The author contrasts the relativistic ethics of the 'four principles' with the position of Christian ethics.