It is not a rare occurrence to hear of people with physical ailments who have been attended to by a stream of professionals. They have seen doctors, physical therapists, chiropractors, surgeons and consultant physicians. They have used anything from one to a dozen different drugs, often several concurrently. They have been subject to all manner of investigations - from blood tests, to x-rays and CAT scans. And in some cases, when the cause of the pain has not been isolated, the individual has been sent for psychiatric assessment!

This is not a one-in-a-million story. If it only were. We don't believe there is a single general practitioner who doesn't have at least one of these cases on their books. And we can only sympathize, both with the individual and the practitioner.

We understand that medicine is an investigative process. It is the closest that most of us will come to true detective work. And we know there are cases where a conclusive diagnosis is elusive, to say the least. Clearly, in depth investigations are indicated and necessary.

Having said that, however, we think it timely to look at the basics of what medicine is all about. The cornerstone of the Hippocratic Oath is: first, do no harm. To the medical practitioner, this is self evident. But there are many types of harm, not just physical injury. And amongst them, one must surely rate taking away someone's control amongst the worst.

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