Not sure where to put it, but I have always wondered about this. As a lawyer, we are often told not to handle cases where we have a vested interest, it causes us to form a partisan view, clouding our objectivity and professional judgement, what are the standards for docs?
I suppose if you have a kid who has the sniffles, might be easier to treat them youself, but for anything substantial, even presuming it was in your competance, would’nt you want someone else?
There is the old saying that “A doctor that treats himself has a fool for a patient.”. This applies to serious matters for family and close friends as well. Of course, they treat minor things for these relations but they are are supposed to become more detached as the possibilities become more serious. Even general practitioners are supposed to have seperatate GP’s for themselves and their family.
Both of my parents are physicians (one is a retired GP, the other is an orthopaedic surgeon).
I had pretty serious asthma as a kid, and my mother (the GP) let specialists treat me for that for the most part, and for any other serious stuff that happened. For more everyday stuff- bronchitis, twisted ankles, and so on, she didn’t mind treating me herself.
Dad (the ortho) never treated me at all. He’s only even attempted to diagnose me twice: once when I came back from boarding school with a three-inch lump on my shin which he insisted on having X-rayed, and once when he poked me in the shoulder a couple of times and (correctly) diagnosed a rotator cuff injury.
I never attempt to go beyond general Dad medicine of band-aids and saying “crack hardy” *.
I do urgent or emergent stuff for the family only, and otherwise stay out of the process as much as possible. Which sometimes annoys family members. 
Given the grave nature of health problems of one family member, I do make more in-depth decisions at times than I normally would, but do so in conjunction with the specialists involved in the care.
What would the point that you would raise your hands up and say, “lets go to another doctor”.
Follow-up to AK84’s question: are you comfortable writing scripts for them, or would you send them to another doc for this?
Not usually comfortable writing scripts for any family or friend. But I will for emergent and urgent situations, and also to refill meds other docs have started, if they run out unexpectedly and the usual routes of renewal are blocked. IF it’s medically necessary AND I have sufficient knowledge of the diagnosis.
I assume care only for specific circumstances, and relinquish it back to their docs ASAP. My wife knows I hate to be put in the position of assuming care, but I also recognize that at times it’s a big help, and it has literally been a lifesaver.
My inlaws are both doctors (a GP and a psychiatrist) and they tend to limit their involvement to GQ-style answers/addressing concerns and treating minor things, such as removing stitches, following up on bad colds/flu, etc. I know that they have both renews scripts and such for family members, but usually only a week’s worth or whatever until the family member can get to their regular doc. They are both generally curious in getting details about family members’ illnesses/injuries and in suggesting things to do/ask our doctors about, etc. In a couple of cases, they have arranged for specific specialists to deal with a family member rather than relying on the luck of the draw, or given a referral for hard-to-access specialties.
My daughter-in-law is a family physician. When her child was born (using a midwife, incidentally, although in a hospital with medical staff on call), she chose a colleague in the same hospital–also a family physician–as his care specialist. When he was six months old or so and had bad sniffles, she called this colleague and described the symptoms, just as any mother might. His answer, roughly, was, “W., you are in mommy mode. Had you been in doctor mode you would have known that there was nothing to worry about with those symptoms.” And so it proved to be the case.
She has prescribed a pill for my wife, but only because my wife was using it chronically and had left it at home when we were on a 2 week visit. She is encouraging us to move there and has even located someone to be our primary care physician, although she treats all ages, but not us. We are not eligible for medicare (not enought SS credits) and US medicare is not the comprehensive coverage it is in Canada, so it unlikely we would move under the current regime.
My sister is now an MD. My mother’s final month involved hospitals and hospice. Although my sister is a family practitioner with an emphasis in geriatrics who is applying to be director of a hospice in New York state, she did not assume the role of primary care anything for mom. Her medical training was used primarily to communicate with other docs, reassure the family on certain matters, and definitely came in handy in regards to physically caring for mom and instructing others in same. I think the most doctorish thing she did was calculate how much infant acetaminophen an emaciated, dying adult required (mom was handling liquids MUCH better than pills at that point). My dad the pharmacist actually was just as capable of doing the exact same thing, as, now that I think about it, that actually is more a pharmacist than a doctor thing. Except, of course, dad was not really in mental shape to do a heck of a lot at the time. Other than that, Dr. Sister let mom’s docs and the hospice nurses do the heavy lifting. As she said, we need to be family, not physicians, to mom.