Should doctors exhort their patients not to drink or smoke?

Question

After all it is the patient's life,patient's money..

Answer 1

i think they should give it up, there's no point in telling me to quit. i know smoking is bad, as does every other person on the planet. I just don't care. Them telling me it's bad, isn't gonna have any effect.

Answer 2

hey the doctor is there to advice the patient to a healthy life. the only power the doctor has is to advice the patients for their own good.. we are not going to force our patients to not smoke or not drink. that is up to the patients for them to choose themselves. but what doctors normally try to do is to advice their patients and show them the downsides of smoking or drinking. And to a point actually the doctor might advice some patients to maybe have a drink a day, since it can prevent some cardiovascular diseases.

Answer 3

Mine stopped when I got into my thirties. I guess he figured out (correctly) that nothing that a person says - whom I see 1 or 2 times a year - will have much of an affect on my life.