Dilemma

I am trying to work out a dilemma. I hesitate to call it a moral dilemma, although I suspect most people would classify it as one. My stepfather is dying of colon cancer but nobody will tell him. The oncologist told my mother that he only had a few months left. He is in great pain and is taking powerful pain medication. He is in his early seventies.
My mother does not want me to tell him anything. She thinks he would collapse into himself and just die.
I have spoken to some people about this. Almost everyone agrees with this … strategy.
I don’t. I appear to be alone in this regard.
Face doom, I say. Face it and make your way with head held high. Aware. Fighting to the last breath. Creating new things. He is not a creative man, though. He has gotten old and he has given up on life; even before his diagnosis he had given up on life.
I don’t personally see the point of not telling him. If he is such a short timer he might want to use the time to, say, drink Scotch.
I am going to see him tomorrow. He complains of pain in his belly and looks at me in mute supplication for help. He does not understand – does not want to understand – that it has come to this.
People come to see him on a daily basis. I know that he is pleased of the attention, but he must be suspicious of his newfound draw.

I want no recommendations. I do not want to pass the buck on this to any degree.

I bought him a bottle of Scotch for Christmas. He does not want to touch it until his stomach gets better. I suspect he will never open it. I wish I could make him drink it with me. But opening it now would require full disclosure.