The Physician as a Witness

As a public servant the physician, being licensed to practice medicine, has certain obligations both to the state and to his profession. His primary obligation is to give aid to his patients and offer himself as a person capable of diagnosis and treatment of human ills. It is conceded by most observers that few professions require more careful preparation than that of medicine. However, a doctor\u27s skill is not always to be found in his office. He is now often called upon to battle in the courts as an expert witness. In the growing interrelationship between law and medicine, the role, rights, and obligations of the physician as an expert witness are often both confusing and exacerbating. Recognizing that these two professions must work together, how then shall they proceed to co-ordinate and correlate their objectives