I think that the physician by saying, "I am sorry for having to tell you that...... " is using accepted social human grace/respect/courtesy in showing the patient/family that he/she "feels"
the grief/pain of the bad news.
It is a part of the therapeutic healing process. The patient/family is "comforted" by this simple human courtesy, feels respected and knows that "my situation is of emotional concern of another and my physician values my feelings and me."
Apathy/Disregard by the physician(messenger) to a patient on telling bad news may severely affect the therapeutic relationship, negatively, permanently.
Who would want to be treated by any-one who is "emotionally detached"?

Maurice
The act of saying sorry/apologizing depends on the individual patient or culture and differs amongst cultures. Certain cultures tend to be more affectionate- meaning expressing their emotions more outwardly than others. I agree a physician expressing personal distress may not be beneficial to the patient, but emotional overtures may be appropriate at times.
This ia an American Academy of Family Physicians article on "Breaking Bad News"
http://www.aafp.org/afp/2001/1215/p1975.html

Can the physician worsen the reception of and be non-beneficent to the patient or family by how the information is communicated? If so, what would be examples of such communication?
Related to my original question: If the doctor states "I apologize (or "I am sorry..") to now have to give you some bad news about your illness" do you really think that the doctor is contributing to the ability of the patient to accept what follows? To me, in a way, emphasizing to the patient that the physician has had his or her own emotional burden now to transfer to the patient seems so unnecessary when the that physician's burden is nothing like the burden patient is about to receive. ..Maurice.

Well, having had to receive bad news from a doctor a few times, not about myself but about my child, my own preference is some expression of shared sorrow. It doesn't really have to be in the words themselves, but in the tone of voice and facial expression. Knowing that my child's doctor cared enough to be personally sad made me feel less alone at those moments. This in no way made me feel responsible for her distress or made me worry about her ability to be competent.
Maybe the perspective of pediatricians is a little different? For those of us who do outpatient, having to give (seriously) bad news is usually not a common thing. My pediatrician friends and I tend to be more emotional at those times, having not had opportunities to practice much. Which generally results in everyone in the clinic walking down the hall crying maybe once a year. And I guess it depends on how long you've known the family. I sat for a few days by the bed of a long time patient dying of an incurable genetic illness last year, and the parents and I cried together when it was time to decide to stop giving treatment. They told me later how much that had helped them.

Here is a scene from "The Shootist" (1976) one of last western cowboy movies. The excerpt at the YouTube link below is where the physician James Stewart gives the "bad news" of cancer to John Wayne. Ironically, the actor John Wayne actually had lung cancer at the time and this was his last movie. Let me know how you evaluate James Stewart's "telling the bad news". Can physicians learn anything for their professional use from this brief scene?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-RUuyt80kU&feature=related

Actually, I help teach "Introduction to Clinical Medicine" to first and second year medical students and the topic of how to break bad news is presented to the second year students just before they go out to their ward clerkships in the 3rd year. Students should consider multiple approaches to tell the news as part of their resource skills. What approach really depends on how much and what kind of relationship the doctor previously has had with the patient and how much the doctor understands the way the patient had previously responded to new information about the illness. It also depends on the emotions the physician bears such as guilt, uncertainty or the physician's own experiences with bad news either personally or with family members. There is no absolute way to react for every patient encounter. I think the main point, though, is to keep in mind the goal is to be therapeutic for the patient. The physician should be aware that his or her own emotions could interfere attaining that goal. That's why when first year med students come to me after their first patient interviews and say that the story the patient was so sad that the student started to cry. I tell them that all doctors are allowed a few tears in front of the patient but crying which interferes with the goal to be therapeutic and attempt to do good to the patient is to be avoided. ..Maurice.