A medical text has a scientific aspect, apparently characterized by the use of terms. But in fact, there is subjectivity throughout, expressed through words which are the real issue of translation. The terminology poses no particular problem for the translator since this information is available from major documentation databases, from multimedia and from informational networks. The words convey the text’s true meaning and represent the real challenge for the translator. The terms are but scientific decoys, hiding lesser targets that include the quest for scientific recognition, the race for research credits or the positioning of a laboratory. On the other hand, the impersonal character of a specialized medical text, which used to guarantee its objectivity, is now increasingly questioned because of the importance in contemporary medicine of immunology and psychiatry. In recent decades, immunology and psychiatry have highlighted a conception of the patient that takes the psychological dimension into account in the study of physiological troubles. In this way, medical discourse brings back into favour the first person subject, however discreet his presence may be in the text.