THIS BOOK IS A SERIES OF STORIES about the body in sickness and in health, in living and dying. Just as physicians must honour the privileged access they have to our bodies, they must honour the trust with which we share our stories. Even as long as two and a half thousand years ago that obligation was recognised: the Hippocratic Oath insists ‘whatsoever in the course of practice you see or hear that ought never to be published abroad, you will not divulge’. As a doctor who is also a writer I’ve spent a great deal of time deliberating over that use of ‘ought’, considering what can and cannot be said without betraying the confidence of my patients.
The reflections that follow are grounded in my clinical experience, but the patients in them have been so disguised as to be unrecognisable – any similarities that remain are coincidental. Protecting confidences is an essential part of what I do: ‘confidence’ means ‘with faith’ – we are all patients sooner or later; we all want faith that we’ll be heard, and that our privacy will be respected.