Boundary violation?

I have been practising medicine for 50 years and I have always considered myself a stickler for medical ethics. I learned from your issue of April-June, 2010 (1) that, at least in two aspects, I have been guilty of unethical practices. I have no intention of changing my habits in the rest of my professional life, and so must continue to violate the boundaries you have laid down. From the day I saw my first patient, I always thought I should be a friend to my patients. I must confess that many of them have become lifelong friends of mine, some over several decades. I stay in their houses when I go to their cities, and they stay in mine when they come to Chennai. We actively socialise. I attend weddings in their families, and they attend functions in mine. We exchange presents on occasions. I receive presents, and I give presents too.

I have been a patient too, and have been treated by doctors all my life for ailments major and trivial. When I was a child and a young man, Dr K S Sanjivi was physician to me and all the family, and he became a dear friend to all of us. I have never met anyone I regarded as a more ethical person, and he was and still is my role model. Perhaps the idea of a doctor as a friend is old fashioned. In that respect, I would rather not be modern, if that means being cold and professional.