...For at least 50 years, autonomy — the patient’s right to determine his or her own care — has been stressed by both the medical and lay communities as the paramount value in medicine. Self-determination is embedded in the American ethos and has a long tradition in American medicine, dating to a 1914 medical negligence case. Autonomy, often restated as “my body, my decision,” is the bedrock principle behind medical issues including abortion, physician-assisted death and informed consent to treatment......While most patients appreciate the emphasis on self-determination, some long for the “good old days” when doctors made the decisions for...