A couple of generations ago medical culture was aloof and authoritarian. Doctors did not give advice to patients, they gave orders. Patients were expected to follow those orders. Questions might have been tolerated, but patient requests for explanations or suggestions for a different approach were considered very unusual. I thought this paternalistic model of doctoring ended long before I was trained. I was trained to think of the patient’s autonomy as the core of the patient-doctor relationshi...