Faced with a doctor, we are always in a position of weakness: because we are suffering with a more or less serious condition, which may kill us; because the doctor has knowledge we do not have and, if anyone has the power to save us, it is the doctor;75 and because we are in bed and the doctor is up on his feet, as Desproges pointed out. But this position of vulnerability ought to mean that the doctor shows some basic courtesy, not that the sick person has to suck it up.
