Each day in surgeries across Ireland, a quiet negotiation unfolds between patient expectation and medical judgment — one whose stakes extend far beyond the individual appointment. Antibiotics, among the most consequential discoveries in human history, are being slowly diminished by the very trust we place in them: the more freely they are given, the less reliably they work. A GP writing in the Irish Examiner offers a careful account of why restraint in prescribing is not a withholding of care, but an act of stewardship for future generations who will need these medicines most.