KIE: A case study in physician-patient confidentiality is presented in which sequestered contraband is inadvertently discovered in a hospitalized prisoner during a diagnostic X-ray examination. Thorburn, a prison physician and professor of medicine, discusses the case from the standpoint of the principle that, where no immediate danger to others exists, patients come first. Anno, assistant medical director for the Texas Department of Corrections, maintains that the prisoner's right to confidentiality is forfeited at the point when the health professional's withholding of information may result in some harm to the patient or to others, and argues that this is such a case.