Dr. Davidoff reproaches internists for not treating their patients like children [1].

In my understanding of medical tradition, it is not for physicians to judge or mandate but simply to advise. We can inform our patients of a general medical consensus, but it is up to our adult patients, who pay us for the advice, to decide what is right for them. It is for us to respect their decision and even the consequences.

There is another reason to give our advice with humility. We physicians have often been wrong in the past. In the light of today's opinion, it would hardly be correct to advise bloodletting to treat fevers, to rale at patients for not having appendectomies before a long trip or for not taking their antiarrhythmic drugs for supraventricular ectopic beats; or to remove asymptomatic gallstones. The list is long. Our patients have general access to the same information as we do. My adult patients have the right to smoke cigarettes and even to possess a handgun, even though I personally do not. The American College of Physicians' policy committee is inappropriately pretending to speak for physicians in general [2]. The reason most internists do not usually "counsel" adult patients about handgun violence, seat belts, and so forth is because it is not our role to do so. We do not judge but rather give our advice when asked to do so.