The role of doctors, nurses and doctors in general is to help their patients and make them healthy. Patients pay for their treatment, but some may think their payment is not enough or want to give extra. This exchange of money for a service is extremely personal since that service is the provider of their continued health, or at least genuine attempts to achieve it. Because this is a very personal topic, patients may feel that they are still in debt to their healthcare providers, even if payment was made correctly. These patients can give their healthcare professional a gift as a thank you. Should the healthcare professional accept or refuse these gifts? Currently, it appears that the decision is left to the discretion of the healthcare professional. To begin with, you need to come up with some kind of vague definition of what types of gifts are being discussed. Gifts that would be considered simple thank yous between a healthcare professional and a patient are also the most common types of gifts (Spence). These are chocolate and liqueurs, which have a low monetary value and cannot easily be exchanged for their face value; meaning that once the healthcare professional receives these gifts, they are likely to keep them. This is important because gifts other than money usually rely on some thought process and require more effort to acquire. This would mean that the patient is thinking of the doctor and that his thanks are probably sincere. There may still be hidden motivations behind these "real" gifts, but both sides of the argument need to be exposed before they can be discussed in more detail. If a gift were to be accepted, it could taint the rest of the care procedure. As Weijer writes: “The doctor-patient relationship...... middle of paper ......el Bible. Internet. April 14, 2010. .Lavine, Jay. “The Thirteen Principles of Jewish Medical Ethics.” Jewish medicine. April 15, 2008. The web. April 28, 2010. .Meir, Asher. “Self-respect or false pride.” Aish. February 23, 2008. Web. April 28, 2010. .Proverbs. King James Bible. Parallel Bible online. Internet. April 14, 2010. <http://bible.cc/proverbs/15-27.htm>.Spence, Sean A. “Patients Bearing Gifts: Are There Any Strings?” » British Medical Journal 331.7531 (2005): 1527-529. BMJ. December 24, 2005. Web. April 28, 2010. .Weijer, Charles. “Should doctors accept gifts from their patients? Yes » Western Journal of Medicine 175.2 (2001): 77. PubMed. Internet. April 14. 2010. .