Medical Ethics in the Ancient World

by Carrick, Paul

• ISBN13: 9780878408481
• ISBN10: 0878408487
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-05-01
• Publisher: Georgetown Univ Pr

Summary

Explores the origins and development of medical ethics, as practiced by the physicians of ancient Greece and Rome. Relates the relevance of their ideas to medical debates and decision-making today.

Author Biography

Paul Carrick teaches philosophy at Gettysburg College. He is a consultant for Pinnacle Health Hospitals and founding director of the Honors Program at Harrisburg Area Community College

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	xv
Preface	xvii
Notes	xx
Acknowledgments	xxi
Introduction	1	(6)
Notes	7	(4)
PART I The Social and Scientific Setting
The Status of The Physician	11	(16)
Types of Physicians	11	(4)
Egyptian Influences	15	(2)
Jewish Influences	17	(1)
The Problem of Licensure	18	(3)
The Relationship between Physicians and Philosophers	21	(2)
Discussion Questions	23	(1)
Notes	23	(4)
Theories of Health and Disease	27	(23)
The Hippocratic Humoral Theory	27	(8)
The Democritean Atomistic Theory	35	(1)
Plato and Aristotle	36	(4)
The Medical Sects	40	(1)
The Galenic Constitutional Theory	41	(5)
Discussion Questions	46	(1)
Notes	47	(3)
Attitudes Toward Death	50	(21)
Divine and Chthonic Personal Immortality	51	(3)
Natural Personal Dissolution	54	(2)
Poetic and Popular Images	56	(3)
Plato and Aristotle	59	(3)
Epicurean Insights	62	(2)
Summary	64	(1)
Discussion Questions	65	(1)
Notes	66	(5)
PART II The Rise of Medical Ethics
Who Was Hippocrates?	71	(12)
Medical Ethics before Hippocrates	72	(4)
The Puzzle of Hippocrates' Identity	76	(4)
Discussion Questions	80	(1)
Notes	80	(3)
The Hippocratic Oath	83	(32)
The Authorship Question	85	(1)
The Prohibition against Surgery	86	(4)
The Covenant Reconsidered	90	(1)
The Ethical Code	90	(4)
Abortion and Euthanasia	94	(5)
The Oath's Date and Origins Reconsidered	99	(1)
Medical Etiquette	100	(6)
Summary	106	(2)
Discussion Questions	108	(1)
Notes	108	(7)
PART III Abortion and Euthanasia
The Problem of Abortion	115	(32)
Preliminary Considerations	117	(8)
Contraception	119	(4)
Methods of Abortion and Infanticide	123	(1)
Midwives	124	(1)
Philosophical Perspectives	125	(12)
Pythagoras	125	(2)
Plato	127	(3)
Aristotle	130	(3)
Seneca	133	(4)
Summary	137	(1)
Discussion Questions	138	(1)
Notes	139	(8)
The Problem of Euthanasia	147	(26)
Preliminary Considerations	147	(6)
Suicide and Language	147	(4)
Types and Methods	151	(2)
Philosophical Perspectives	153	(13)
Pythagoras	153	(2)
Plato	155	(5)
Aristotle	160	(2)
Seneca	162	(4)
Summary	166	(1)
Discussion Questions	167	(1)
Notes	168	(5)
The Physician's Moral Responsibility	173	(12)
Abortion	174	(2)
Euthanasia	176	(2)
``Do No Harm''	178	(2)
Summary	180	(1)
Discussion Questions	181	(1)
Notes	182	(3)
CONCLUSION	185	(10)
Diverse Medical Ethical Perspectives	185	(2)
Physicians and Philosophers	187	(2)
Physicians and Patients	189	(3)
Physicians and the State	192	(1)
Discussion Questions	193	(1)
Notes	194	(1)
EPILOGUE	195	(30)
The Biomedical Revolution	195	(16)
Morning After/Abortion Pill: RU-486	197	(2)
Surrogate Motherhood	199	(2)
Physician-Assisted Suicide	201	(2)
Advance Directives	203	(1)
Preventive Medicine	204	(2)
Animal Experimentation	206	(2)
Gene Therapy	208	(3)
The Hippocratic Oath Revisited	211	(1)
Perennial Issues	212	(6)
Confidentiality	213	(1)
Abortion and Euthanasia	214	(1)
Truth-Telling	215	(1)
Distributive Justice	216	(2)
Professional Commitment	218	(2)
Discussion Questions	220	(1)
Notes	220	(5)
Appendix A: Principles of Medical Ethics	225	(2)
Appendix B: A Patient's Bill of Rights	227	(3)
Appendix C: Declaration of Geneva	230	(1)
Appendix D: Code for Nurses	231	(2)
Appendix E: Animal Use in Biomedical Research	233	(3)
Appendix F: Historical Chronology: Ancient Medicine and Culture	236	(3)
Select Bibliography	239	(12)
Index	251