Before Bioethics: A History of American Medical Ethics from the Colonial Period to the Bioethics RevolutionBefore Bioethics narrates the history of American medical ethics from its colonial origins to current bioethical controversies over abortion, AIDS, animal rights, and physician-assisted suicide. The first history of American medical ethics published in more than a half century, Before Bioethics tracks the evolution of American medical ethics from colonial midwives and physicians' oaths, to medical society codes and bioethical principles. Applying the concept of "morally disruptive technologies," it analyzes the impact of the stethoscope on conceptions of fetal life and the criminalization of abortion, and the impact of the ventilator on our conception of death and the treatment of the dying. The narrative offers tales of those whose lives were affected by the medical ethics of their era: unwed mothers executed by puritans because midwives found them with stillborn babies; the unlikely trio-an Irishman, a Sephardic Jew and in-the-closet gay public health reformer-who drafted the American Medical Association's code of ethics but received no credit for their achievement, and the founder of American gynecology celebrated during his own era but condemned today because he perfected his surgical procedures on un-anesthetized African American slave women. The book concludes by exploring the reasons underlying American society's empowerment of a hodgepodge of ex-theologians, humanist clinicians and researchers, lawyers and philosophers-the bioethicists-as authorities able to address research ethics scandals and the ethical problems generated by morally disruptive technologies. |
Contents
Introduction On Medicine Ethics and Morality | 1 |
Midwives Oaths of Fidelity and Diligence | 19 |
The Medical Ethics of Gentlemanly Honor | 36 |
The Lecturers Samuel Bard and Benjamin Rush | 62 |
Oaths and Codes of Medical Police and Ethics 18061846 | 94 |
A National Code of Medical Ethics | 131 |
Professional Medical Ethics 18481875 Abortion Inquisition and Exclusion | 168 |
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Before Bioethics: A History of American Medical Ethics from the Colonial ... Robert Baker Limited preview - 2013 |
Common terms and phrases
abortion advertising African-American AMA's American Medical Association Bard Beaumont Belmont Report Benjamin Rush bioethicists bioethics Boston Medical brain death century chapter child code of ethics codes of medical College of Physicians Commission committee conception conduct consent consultation Davis death disease doctors duty Edinburgh medical Edinburgh medical college Edinburgh oath epidemic experiments flyte gentlemanly honor Gregory Hays Hippocratic Hippocratic oath homeopathic hospital human subjects Ibid issue John Journal Kappa Lambda Society laissez-faire lectures licensing medi Medical Association Editors Medical College medical ethics medical morality medical police medical school medical societies medicine midwives morally disruptive MSCNY MSSNY Nathan Smith Davis norms numbers obligations obstetric fistulas patients Percival Percival's person Philadelphia physi physicians practice practitioners prequickening Principles profession professional published Puritan research ethics Rush Rush's sick Sims social sponsio standard surgeon tion treatment University violation woman women yellow fever