Medicine is like the laughing and crying masks of the theater—comedy and drama. There is never one side that is right and another side that is wrong. The risk calculations are in the doctor’s head, and no algorithm has yet to do better. Yet ultimately, as far as the hospital is concerned, the patient is always right because personal autonomy trumps probabilistic outcomes. You have to respect their wishes as human beings, we are told. But if you ask me whether the customer is always right, I would say, “Not at all.” The patient is so very often dead wrong, and very much so when it comes to his
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