Medical ethics

“ General protection of medical duties 1. Under no circumstances shall any person be punished for carrying out medical activities compatible with medical ethics, regardless of the person benefiting therefrom. ”

“ I intend to pass very briefly over matters of medical ethics, such as the conditions under which a physician may lawfully perform a medical experiment upon a person who has voluntarily subjected himself to it, or whether experiments may lawfully be performed upon criminals who have been condemned to death. ”

“ In another part of this book I shall have more to say about the medical buzzards who, working outside of medical ethics and in defiance of the usually admirable spirit of the profession as a whole, without regard to financial or ethical honesty, indulge in whatever practices seem to promise them the greatest profit. ”

“ Now we go deeper in our studies, and appeal from human legislation to the first principles of right and wrong, as Jurisprudence ought to do; and, in consequence, some medical operations which used to be tolerated, or even approved, by many in the profession are at present absolutely and justly condemned. The learned physician these days is no longer afraid to face the moral philosopher; there is no longer any estrangement between Ethics and Medical Practice. Medicine, sent from Heaven to be an angel of mercy to man, is now ever faithful to its beneficent mission ”

“ An inquiry into the laws of life and causes of death laid the foundation for Medical Jurisprudence, and the consideration of the intellectual and moral faculties built up a system of Ethics. So that now, medical literature embraces a much larger field than any other profession ”

“ Can he feel sure that his patients are well looked after, attended to according to his wishes, and kindly treated? Can he do justice, lastly, as a physician, to any one afflicted patient, whose restoration to health and to society depends on the efficient exercise of his medical skill, and do this without neglecting other patients and other duties? To these questions, surely, every thinking, reasoning man will reply in the negative. ”

“ This principle cannot be too deeply impressed upon the mind of every one, while he is receiving his medical education; for the triumph of our cause, and the rescuing of suffering humanity from the iron grasp of medical tyranny, depend upon the integrity of our practitioners, and their strict adherence to the true principles of practice. ”

“ It is the sad province of Medicine, and especially of Psychiatry, to constantly regard the reverse side of life,—human weakness and misery.
Perhaps in this difficult calling some consolation may be gained, and extended to the moralist, if it be possible to refer to morbid conditions much that offends ethical and æsthetic feeling. Thus Medicine undertakes to save the honor of mankind before the Court of Morality, and individuals from judges and their fellow-men. The duty and right of medical science in these studies belong to it by reason of the high aim of all human inquiry after truth. ”

“ Our ministrations to body and soul cannot be separated by a sharply-defined line. The arbitrary distinction between the physician of the body and the physician of the soul—doctor and priest—tends to disappear as science advances. Every branch of medicine involves moral considerations, both as regards the practitioner and the patient. Even the amputation of a limb, the care of a case of fever, the birth of a child, all contain a moral element which is evident to the clear understanding, and which cannot be neglected without injury to the doctor, to the individual, and to society. ”

“ A knowledge of the duties which we owe to society, resulting from the relation in which we stand to one another, is an object of the next importance. After this, whatever relates to the welfare of the body deserves our most immediate concern.—Life, when burdened with disease, is but a complication of woes. Health is that choice seasoning which gives a relish to all our enjoyments. As the end of medical science is to restore and preserve health, the welfare of every individual, of whatever age or sex, is concerned in the improvement of it amongst them. ”

“ During the past fifteen years the art of curing and preventing disease has taken on giant strides. The man or woman most ready to question the accomplishments and the ability of the humble family physician or the [650] motive of the science of medicine, is the one who appreciates least that it is due to the skill and intelligence of the medical men of to-day that he owes his comfort, his health, and his freedom from pestilence, plague and disease. ”

“ In modern times doctors have disagreed with each other often enough to warrant laymen in questioning the infallibility of any individual healer or any sect, whether homeopath, allopath, eclectic, osteopath, or scientist. Yet to this day most of us surround the medical profession or the healing art with an atmosphere of necromancy. Even after we have given up faith in drugs or after belief is denied in the reality of disease and pain, we revere the calling that concerns itself, whether gratuitously or for pay, with conquering bodily ills. ”

“ An eminent authority on therapeutics says:
"The medical profession holds a most false relation to society. Its honors and emoluments are measured, not by the good, but by the evil it does. The physician who keeps some member of the family of his rich neighbor on a bed of sickness for months or years, may secure to himself thereby both fame and fortune; while the other who would restore the patient to health in a week or two, will be neither appreciated nor understood. ”

“ Do not let your good judgment be governed by your prejudices, but give the above named remedy a fair and patient trial, and I believe you will not only be rewarded by a perfect restoration to health, but you will also be convinced that the medical profession does not possess all the knowledge there is embraced in medical science. ”

“ The advance of physical science and the simultaneous retreat of religious faith threaten, among their numerous consequences, to introduce a new principle into morals. We may call it Doctor’s Doctrine,—not because it is by any means the exclusive property of the medical profession, or that all doctors can be supposed to hold it, but because it is more rife among them and tells more directly on their work than in the case of other men. ”

“ A high sense of the duties and dignity of the medical profession animates every precept he enforces on the attention of those who are to deal with disease. Like all the advanced thinkers of his profession, he relies, in the art of curing, more on Nature than on drugs ”

“ In the practice of medicine, there must always be a "first time" when a new method of medical treatment is tested, a new operation performed, a new remedy employed. Whether the procedure pertain to medicine or surgery, so long as the amelioration of the patient is the one purpose kept in view, IT IS LEGITIMATE TREATMENT. The motive determines the morality of the act.
II. Now human vivisection is something quite different. ”

“ If a physician possesses knowledge that enables him to remedy diseases heretofore regarded as incurable, what virtue or modesty is there to "hide his light under a bushel"? In this free country the people think and act for themselves, and hence all have a deep concern in the subject of health. ”

“ Let what will be the condition of your patient, you are not to act as some few conscientious practitioners do, explaining what you conceive to be the nature of the case, original cause of complaint, or from what operation you expect expeditious relief; this may be the best practice with those unfashionable formal old fellows, who received their medical instructions near half a century since, and pique themselves upon what they call their integrity; but it will be perfectly illiberal in you, who have received a more modern, and polished education. ”

“ Let us consider further, that in many large towns and villages, there are a number of persons entrusted with the practice of medicine and surgery, who, being destitute of all means of acquiring the true principles of their profession, remain in a pitiful state of ignorance in it, without any prospect or opportunity of correcting their errors, or greatly improving their knowledge. We cannot then remain untouched with sentiments of compassion; we cannot avoid feeling part of their distress, or forbear to wish that a remedy were found for so great a misfortune. ”

“ With such views, and deprived of that vista of an eternal future which alone gives to human things their true perspective, [Pg 78] it is not wonderful that many should come to regard bodily health as the summum bonum, and thence to deduce the principle to which I desire to call attention as an innovation in ethics. Reduced as nearly as possible to a formula, that principle is as follows:
That any practice which, in the opinion of experts, conduces to bodily health or tends to the cure of disease, becomes, ipso facto, morally lawful and right. ”

“ Furthermore, advances in medicine and surgery have been so great [Pg 290] that far more is now expected of the medical corps than ever before, and it is a duty which we owe to those who incur the dangers of fighting for us that we should care for them. We are, therefore, under the very highest moral obligation to give them our best, and enough of it. It must be a small inducement that we offer to men to fight our battles if we permit them to feel that they are not objects of our solicitude when sick or wounded. ”

“ If Scientists are called upon to care for a member of the family, or a friend in sickness, who is employing a regular physician, would it be right to treat this patient at all; and ought the patient to follow the doctor's directions?
When patients are under material medical treatment, it is advisable in most cases that Scientists do not treat them, or interfere with materia medica. If the patient is in peril, and you save him or alleviate his sufferings, although the medical attendant and friends have no faith in your method, it is humane, and not unchristian, to do him all the good you can ”

“ Amongst other symptoms of advancing civilisation proper to this period, was an effort towards the correction of unauthorised medical practice. ‘Persons without knowledge of the science of medicine’ were everywhere practising, ‘to the great and evident hazard of the lives and healths of many of our subjects;’ so declared the king. ”

“ It should be constantly borne in mind, that there is here a high and stern morality, that should stimulate the medical profession in the exercise of their utmost effort and ingenuity, with the view to master and disclose the secrets of these villainous practices ”

“ They all appeal to a multitude of unquestionable and truly remarkable cures. Judged by the testimony of its opponents, every medical system is false, a miserable delusion and quackery; but tested by facts and cures, every system is true and a boon to humanity. ”

“ We shall find also, in other works we propose to analyze, the same false ideas of the public regarding the healing art as exists to-day; the same tendency to always lead one into error, and unjustly accuse the medical profession of all the accidents that happen to a patient—this, too, notwithstanding all ancient codes of hygiene and all the ages of experience. ”

“ There is no profession, from the members of which greater purity of character, and a higher standard of moral excellence are required, than the medical; and to attain such eminence is a duty every physician owes alike to his profession and to his patients. ”

“ Schools and chairs in preventive hygiene would soon give to the medical profession a point of view that would welcome every new truth, such as the alliance of religion and medicine, and estimate its full worth promptly. Truth seeking would be not only encouraged but made a condition of professional standing.
Just what attitude any particular physician takes can be learned by the teacher or parents whose children he treats. If he pooh-poohs or resents board of health regulations as to isolation of scarlet-fever patients, he is a dangerous man, no matter how noble his personal character. ”

“ Notwithstanding all the laws enacted to raise the standard of medicine, and thus protect the public from quackery, there yet exists a disposition among many to cling to all that savors of the miraculous, or supernatural. To insure the future advancement of the healing art, physicians must instruct mankind in Physiology, Hygiene, and Medicine. When the people understand the nature of diseases, their causes, methods of prevention and cure, they will not be easily deceived, and practitioners will be obliged to qualify themselves better for their labors. ”

“ Only the healthy should keep these rules. Whoever is ill or a sufferer from any injuries, or has lost his health through bad habits, for him there are special rules for each disease, only to be found [Pg 105] in the medical books. Let it be remembered that every change in a life habit is the beginning of an ailment.
21. If no physician can be secured, then ailing people may use these rules as well as the healthy.
These rules are, of course, full of the common sense of medicine that endures at all times. ”

“ But in sudden and painful attacks of acute disease, life may be suddenly and unexpectedly jeopardized, and immediate relief prove necessary. While under these circumstances the prompt application of such domestic treatment as good common-sense may dictate, guided by a knowledge of those first principles of medical learning which we shall hereafter endeavor to make plain, may result in speedy and happy relief, yet at the same time there should be no delay in summoning a competent physician to the bedside of the sufferer. ”