Plans to share the medical records held by doctors, on a national database, have had to be shelved as a result of public pressure. Yet the public’s hostility to this proposal is misguided. Of course people’s medical records are personal matters, which they might not want divulged. And yet, while it is in everyone’s interests to maintain a degree of privacy, for their own peace of mind, it is also in their interests for medical science to find new treatments for ill-health. If the data were allowed to be shared, medical researchers would have access to an enormous pool of data, which could advance their understanding of illnesses and how they are caused.