Abstract
During the last decades, the health care paradigm underwent a major shift from the paternalistic approach to an autonomy-based understanding. From the legal perspective, informed consent represents a legal ground for interference with the patient's bodily integrity.
However, a seemingly highly paternalistic practice is represented by the so-called therapeutic privilege. The term denotes the right of health professionals to withhold information on unfavourable diagnosis or prognosis from the patient if the provision of such information could cause a serious personal injury to the patient.
The paper analyses the concept of therapeutic privilege from the legal and ethical perspective and defines under which conditions it is permissible.