The payment of the fee by a third person does not absolve from the rule of professional secrecy.
The symptoms and feelings of a patient are sometimes admitted as (hearsay) testimony from a medical witness, especially where the former is dead. Letters from a patient to a medical man containing such statements are not allowed.
A confession (which must be quite voluntary) or a dying declaration (from the lips of a victim of homicide convinced of impending death) made in the hearing of a medical man should be noted down at once, word for word, and, in the absence of a magistrate, signed by all persons present. Should death be imminent after a criminal assault (which includes abortion), the medical man should urge the victim to make such a dying declaration.
If a patient is sent to gaol or an asylum, communicate at once, but privately, with the medical officer should you know of any mental or physical abnormality.
Examination of the Dead.
Do not order the removal of a dead body; leave that duty to the police or to the Coroner’s officer.
Forbid, however, any disturbance of a body to which you are called until you have seen it and the circumstances.
1. Where the Coroner orders “evidence touching the external appearance of the body, and the cause of the death”:
The body should be identified in your presence; if it cannot be identified, special care must be taken with the inspection. A photograph should be taken at once.
The appearance of the corpse, both when clothed and when stripped, must be noted.