Palliative care researcher proposes Platinum Rule for treatment

The Golden Rule is one of the oldest, most well-known moral principles. You may have been taught it as, ‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you,’ or, ‘treat others as you would like to be treated.’

It is an age-old tenant that University of Manitoba distinguished professor of psychiatry Dr. Harvey Chochinov says is an important way of approaching compassion in life and health-care.

"It means using yourself somehow as a measure or barometer of what someone else might want, which isn’t a bad way to start in gauging how we ought to manage someone's care," said Chochinov, who is also a senior scientist at CancerCare Manitoba Research Institute.

The Winnipeg palliative care researcher says in some circumstances there may need to be a change in perspective and like any other rule, he argues The Golden Rule has its limitations.

"You start to see those limitations when you come to the realization that somebody else’s experience may be very different than your own."

It's why he's proposed an extension, which he calls "The Platinum Rule,” which is; ‘do unto others as they would want done to themselves.’

"It's not about what you would want in that circumstance always, especially when your lived experience is so different from somebody else’s, but what would that person want," he explained.

The Platinum Rule is an idea he first published after reading a case study on a man whose physician mentioned the patient may want to consider medical assistance in dying in the future. 

"Which was completely at odds with what this gentlemen's needs and wants were. He was in his late 60s, lived in rural Manitoba, farmer, large family, was interested in spending as much quality time as he could with his children and his grandchildren, participating in the harvest."

Dr. Chochinov has also published a paper detailing his own sister’s experience in an intensive care unit. He said she lived with cerebral palsy, and there were moments when he perceived a doctor had trouble seeing past her disorder.

One way to apply The Platinum Rule, he said, is to realize we all see things a little differently.

"Then the Platinum Rule will hopefully lead to recognition that who you are as a patient matters but who you are as person matters every bit as much."