The professions have been under for the last decade. They appear to fit ill into today's egalitarian, transparent world where trial is often by the media and there is more focus on dumbing down than on excellence. The medical profession is thought of collectively as a pernicious form of freemasonry with secret rituals, closing ranks when one of their number is attacked. The truth lies far from this, and the physicians' charter by the Medical Professionalism Project (the