Recently, I came across the Charter of the Soignés (“those being cared for”) by French physician and writer Martin Winckler from The School of Caregivers (2019).
This is not a legal document, but an ethical framework. It outlines 10 principles centered on dignity, autonomy, and the humanity of the patient.
The first nine principles focus on what we would hope our patients experience. The recognition that a person is more than a diagnosis. That the body belongs to the individual. That information should be clearly understandable. That questions are always appropriate. That values and preferences matter. That care can be accepted or refused. That dignity must be preserved. That suffering deserves acknowledgment. That care works best as a partnership.
Interestingly, the 10th principle shifts focus toward the physician. “You will take care of your own health. You will take the rest to which you are entitled. You will protect your freedom of thought. You will refuse to sell yourself.”
This line resonates strongly with many physicians because it acknowledges something often ignored. Patient rights and physicians’ working conditions are not opposing interests. They are deeply linked.
Winckler’s message is that ethical care cannot exist in a system that expects physicians to sacrifice their own health or independence indefinitely. It is striking that a charter about patients ends by speaking directly to those providing care.
The 10th principle is not a departure from the charter’s focus on patients, but its logical conclusion. It is the recognition that the ability to care for others is inseparable from the ability to remain fully human oneself.
Yet in many practice environments, the expectation of constant availability has quietly expanded beyond defined working hours. Responsibility extends into nights, weekends, and the in-between spaces of life that were once reliably protected.
Call is often framed as a professional obligation, part of the culture of medicine, part of what it means to be committed. But when availability becomes assumed rather than defined, it begins to draw from something that is not infinite.
Why it resonates in physician discussions is because it is tied in to our conversations about burnout, call burden, loss of professional autonomy, corporate control of medical decision-making, and feeling like we are “for sale” within productivity-driven systems.
Protecting the physician’s ability to rest, to step away, and to maintain independence of thought is not separate from protecting patients. It may be part of the same work.
A multilingual translation of the charter reflects its adoption by international patient advocacy communities. The phrase “la charte des soignés” literally translates to “the charter of those being cared for.”
This wording intentionally moves away from the more passive term patient, emphasizing participation rather than submission.
The tenth principle reads almost like a quiet boundary. You will take the rest to which you are entitled. You will protect your intellectual autonomy. You will never be for sale.
Corinne Rao is an internal medicine physician, working as an independent contractor at several health care facilities, the owner of an internal medicine practice, and a member of FlexMedstaff. In her spare time, she is a ballroom dancer.
