Charging doctors for medical services

the paper by R Morgan and colleagues gave rise to concern.2 One of the authors of the paper has confirmed that the medicolegal advice given in the case cited was given specifically in the context of facts about a particular patient with metastatic bronchial carcinoma who had expressed a particular wish about cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The society's and the union's advice in that particular case was then generalised and reported as a personal communication in the paper by Morgan and colleagues. We agree with Dudley that it is not correct generally to assert that "legally if a patient requests cardiopulmonary resuscitation it should be provided." This is not the appropriate place to attempt an exposition of general guidance on the subject. We question whether a major international journal should publish what is attributed as a personal communication without some attempt at verification. We commend for debate the proposition that personal communications should be substantiated by the authors when draft papers are submitted to a journal for publication. Additionally, there may be circumstances in which the journal would then seek to verify such personal communications before publication