A lawyer goes to the doctor because he is not feeling well. After examining him, the physician says to the lawyer, "Before I tell you anything, I would like for you to be examined by my colleague in the next office, just to get a second opinion." The lawyer is introduced to the other doctor, then goes through another complete physical examination. When it is over, the physician tells him to sit in the waiting room until the first doctor calls him back into his office.

A few minutes later he is brought in, and as the lawyer takes a seat across from the doctor's desk, he begins to feel a bit nervous. Both doctors are sitting there behind the desk, with very serious looks on their faces. The first doctor says to the lawyer, "My colleague and I have examined you and we have come to the same conclusion: You have a very rare and incurable disease. You will die in two weeks, and it will be a very slow and painful death."

The other doctor suddenly turns toward the first doctor, looking very surprised. "Why did you tell him that?"

"Well," replies the first doctor, "I felt that he had the right to know."