Hallenbeck J, Arnold R. J Clin Oncol. 2007 Nov 1;25(31):5030-4. Sometimes physicians are faced with the situation in which a patient’s family does not wish to tell them about their diagnosis, such as in the case of a diagnosis of cancer. The authors of this article propose a method by which the physician can accommodate the family while at the same time continuing to uphold informed consent and patient autonomy. In the United States, physicians view requests for nondisclosure as a threatening departure from norms of clinical practice, however, from a global perspective, we are in the minority. In most other countries the primary recipient of bad news is the family, not the patient. The authors propose the following strategy for handling a request for nondisclosure: