1.	Your gender? male/female
2.	Your age? <30, 30–35, 36–40, 41–45, 46–50, 51–55, 56–60, and >60
3.	What is your surgical specialty? general/vascular/cardiac/pediatric/trauma and orthopedics/plastic and aesthetic/thoracic/visceral
4.	What is your current position? resident/specialist/senior physician/chief physician/private practice
5.	What type of hospital do you work at? standard care level/mid-level/referral center/university hospital/private practice
6.	What is your hospital operator? state/municipal/nonprofit (e.g., church)/insurance companies (e.g., trade association)/private
7.	What is the size of your hospital in beds? <200, 200–400, 401–600, 601–800, 801–1,000, >1,000
8.	What is the size of your department in beds? <20, 20–40, 41–60, 61–80, >80
9.	Have you ever operated on friends or relatives? yes (continue at 10)/no [continue at 27]
10.	Was the operation: minor (e.g., inguinal hernia, appendectomy, fractured radius)/intermediate (e.g., sigmoid resection, hip endoprosthesis)/major (e.g., Whipple procedure, pneumonectomy, coronary bypass)? + possibility of free-text answer
11.	Was the operation an elective procedure/emergency procedure?
12.	Was the friend or relative your spouse or partner/son or daughter (child)/son or daughter (adult)/father or mother/brother or sister/distant relative)/friend?
13.	Were there any complications? yes [continue at 14]/no [continue at 15]
14.	If yes, did you continue the treatment? yes/no
15.	Were you satisfied with the surgery and the postoperative course? yes/no
16.	Was the friend or relative satisfied with the surgery and the postoperative course? yes/no
17.	Did your operate on the friend or relative because no other surgeon was available/you mastered the procedure best/you want to have full control over the procedure/the person close to you had asked you to do so? + possibility for free-text answer
18.	Before the procedure, did you have any second thoughts that you do not normally have? yes/no
19.	Did anybody try to keep you from performing the surgery? the friend or relative her-/himself/other people, that are close to me/colleagues or coworkers/nobody
20.	During the procedure, were you any different from normally? more nervous/more accurate/slower/no, as usual
21.	When you performed the operation, were you: a resident/specialist/senior physician/chief physician/in private practice?
22.	How did you decide surgery was indicated for the friend or relative? the usual criteria/more strict criteria/less strict criteria
23.	Before operating on the friend or relative, did you order any tests other than the usual ones? yes/no
24.	Did you perform surgery on the friend or relative other than the usual way (e.g., inguinal hernia repair without instead of with a mesh, partial thyroidectomy instead of total thyroidectomy, fractured radius with cast instead of internal fixation, femoral head-preserving procedure instead of endoprosthesis)? yes/no
25.	Was there any criticism regarding the operation? from the friend or relative who was the patient/from other people close to you/from colleagues or coworkers/there was no criticism
26.	After the treatment, how did your relationship to the friend or relative change? better/equal/worse [continue at 28]
27.	If you have already had the opportunity to operate on friends or relatives, but you did not do so, was that because you have never been in that situation/it did not feel right/somebody else could perform the procedure better/the patient-doctor relationship does not work that way or objectivity is missing/the person close to you objected/others objected
28.	If you had the opportunity, would you operate on friends or relatives in the future? yes [continue at 29]/no [continue at 30]
29.	Yes, I would operate on friends or relatives in the future (multiple answers possible) only if no other surgeon is available/only if the friend or relative has asked me to do so/because I mastered the procedure best/because I want to have full control over the procedure/because I have had good experiences with this matter/because others have had good experiences with this matter [continue at 31]
30.	No, I would not operate on friends or relatives in the future because (multiple answers are possible) I do not feel good about it/the patient-doctor relationship does not work that way or objectivity is missing/others would object/I have had bad experiences with this matter/because others have had bad experiences with this matter
31.	In case a colleague had the opportunity to operate on friends or relatives, would you advise against doing the operation/advise to proceed with the operation?
32.	How do colleagues decide if surgery is indicated when operating on friends or relatives? the usual criteria/more strict criteria/less strict criteria/I do not know
33.	Before operating on friends or relatives, do colleagues order tests other than the usual ones? yes/no/I do not know
34.	Do colleagues perform surgical procedures on friends or relatives other than the usual way (e.g., inguinal hernia repair without instead of with a mesh, partial thyroidectomy instead of total thyroidectomy, fractured radius with cast instead of internal fixation, femoral head-preserving procedure instead of endoprosthesis)? yes/no/I do not know
35.	Are there conditions that you would manage differently for yourself compared to what you regularly recommend to your patients (e.g., inguinal hernia repair without instead of with a mesh, thyroidectomy instead of watchful waiting, fractured radius with cast instead of internal fixation, femoral headpreserving procedure instead of endoprosthesis)? yes/no
36.	Would you let friends or relatives operate on you? yes/no/I do not know
37.	Have you already given attention to the subject “operating on friends or relatives”? yes/no
38.	Would you like to have ethical support or guidelines in case you could or had to operate on friends or relatives? yes/no