ABSTRACT
The caricature of the arrogant, overbearing, non-listening hospital consultant may have been true in the past, but there has
been a huge swing towards patient autonomy over the last 50 years which may have gone too far. Paternalism is not necessarily bad – there are bad fathers but also good fathers who are kind and caring and there are times when patients cannot exercise autonomy because they are very ill and paternalism has to step in.
