ABSTRACT
The quote by Atticus Finch in Harper Lee's seminal novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, is easily transposed to surgery. Surgeons seeking to maintain probity and professional standards would do well to consider these sentiments in their clinical practice and reflect on what each individual patient they see expects. Elective surgery is predicated on violating' the homoeostatically stable state of the patient in order to cure disease or improve well-being. The process is fraught with uncertainty and complexity, even for experienced operators. Application of evidence-based surgery will, in great part, help surgeons, and thus their patients, navigate these uncertainties. Circumstances surrounding adverse events can often be very sensitive, emotional and challenging for clinicians and patients. Patients will be concerned about ongoing health and well-being, surgeons may feel shame, guilt and embarrassment. Gradually, but measurably, surgery shifted from a craft guild to a scientific discipline, and an insistence on an evidence-based foundation to surgical practice has become ingrained in the surgical psyche.
