I'm relieved to know that you do in fact respect other professions, at least I accept what you say, and on reflection I suspect that my misunderstanding was probably semantic; a different interpretation of the word "solution".

Ah. Thats probably my fault for not expressing myself better. Judging from the wide range of responses I didn't make my point clear enough. But in hindsight I'm kinda glad: I think the responses would have been less interesting had I had been less of a windbag. :-)

To use your doctor/patient analogy, I was asserting that the patient has every right to say "I have halitosis, it's inhibiting my social life, and I want sweet smelling breath", whereas I would agree with what I now think you saying that the patient does not have the right to say "...and I want you to prescribe benzodiazepine."

Yep thats pretty much what I was driving at. :-) And your example is particularly pertinent, in that its quite possible the doctor you mention might simply say "lay off the garlic in your meals", and not prescribe any medicine at all. Just as we might simply point a customer at a commonly available tool instead of writing any code.

Anyway, im glad thats all settled then.