The self-styled dinosaur on page 682 has called up the spirit of the much missed Petr Skrabanek in charging current medical practice with (in Skrabanek's evocative phrase) coercive healthism. (In passing, I'm sure I'm not the only one to wonder at the way we use the dinosaur metaphor. Dinosaurs, so the palaeontologists tell us, were phenomenally well adapted evolutionary in terms. They survived for millions of years before a meteorite-induced drop in temperature caused their extinction. Not sure that mammals will last anything like as long in the face of global warming.) Willis is arguing that real doctors have to be free to make their own judgements. While not wishing to return to the days of virtually unfettered clinical freedom, many will share fears about ‘centrally-imposed mistake-making’. For central directives in a different area, now turn to page 608 for the paper on …