The field of bio- or medical ethics continues to show serious distress, appearances to the contrary notwithstanding. Not that such news will, I dare say, cause many tremors in the landscape of medicine or health care. What with the upheavals brought on by the open shift to commercializing health care—and the threats to the autonomy long enjoyed by many health professionals, physicians in particular, now experiencing the real anguish implicit to functioning as gatekeepers (Pellegrino ED, J Contemp Health Law Policy 2:23–45, 1986)—there has been quite enough to preoccupy physicians, researchers and others in health care's increasingly embattled demesne.