1) Origin & Essence of Medical Ethics

• Medical ethics


  Part of general ethics, aimed at solving practical problems related to value contradictions and moral conflicts that arise in the professional activity of the doctor and specialists who protect public health
• Regulators of human behavior


  • Legal norms - laws, by-laws and regulations
  • Moral norms - also called ethical or deontological, they are the "unwritten laws" of the medical profession
• Ethics


  • A set of principles of correct behavior
  • A theory or system of moral values
  • Study of the general nature of morality and of the specific moral choices to be made by man; moral philosophy
  • Rules or standards that regulate the conduct of a person or members of a profession
• Meta-ethics


  The investigation of the nature of ethical statements, the study of the meanings of ethical terms, the nature of ethical judgments and the types of ethical arguments
• Normative ethics


  Creates clear criteria for evaluating what is right and wrong in behavior, also includes theory of value which looks at what things are deemed to be valuable
• Applied ethics


  Applies normative ethical theories to specific controversial issues, examining the ethical problems of different professions
• Ethical Decision-Making Model


  • Includes the context/facts of the situation, the stakeholders, the decision-makers, which inform a number of alternate choices that are mediated through the evaluation of impacts and negotiations among the parties, leading to selection of an optimal choice
• General moral values and norms of society are applicable to professionals in addition to their professional morals and ethics</b>
• Aim of medical ethics

  To ensure reliable protection of the interests of people who are the object and subject of work in this profession, and to prepare future physicians for ethical decision-making by supporting the development of ethical sensitivity and moral reasoning
• Morality


  A set of moral values that determine human behavior and relationships between people
• Bioethics


  Synonymous with biomedical ethics and medical ethics, introduced by the American biologist Potter, meaning "science of survival", "ethical guidance"
• Nuremberg Code created


  1947
• Declaration of Helsinki adopted by the World Medical Association


  1964
• Informed consent


  Considered a basic ethical requirement when conducting medical research
• Hammurabi's code in Babylon (1790 BC) contained special laws for healers
• Hippocrates (460-377 BC) was the greatest physician of antiquity and started the Hippocratic Oath
• Biomedical ethics


  Ethical considerations in medicine and healthcare
• Medical ethics


  Ethical considerations in medicine and healthcare
• Ethical considerations became particularly important after experiments on prisoners by Nazi doctors


  After World War II
• Nuremberg Code


  Created in 1947, established ethical principles for human experimentation
• Declaration of Helsinki


  Adopted by the World Medical Association in 1964, established ethical principles for human experimentation
• King Hammurabi created the first Code of Laws


  1790 BC
• Hammurabi's code


  • Contained special laws for healers, including punishments for unsuccessful treatments
• Hippocrates


  The greatest Physician of all time, started learning the healing arts from his family at a young age
• Hippocrates debunked the divine origin of diseases and associated their occurrence with the adverse impact of the external environment and social factors
• Hippocrates' ideal of a healer

  • Well-guarded appearance, clean and restrained character, thoughtful but not harsh demeanor
• In antiquity, the physician was allowed active assistance in dying, as exemplified by Seneca
• Aristotle and Plato


  Used medicine to illustrate problems of politics and ethics
• Aristotle believed ethics should be considered in close connection with people's social life, as "ethics is a study of the morality of man as a social being - as a 'political animal'"
• Asclepius


  The deified Greek god of medicine and healing, with 5 famous children who continued his work
• Types of doctors distinguished by Aristotle and Plato

  • Doctor of the slaves
  • Free doctor
  • Doctor as an educated person
• Distinctive features of ethics in antiquity

  • Medicine influenced by cosmology and anthropology
  • Physician allowed active assistance in dying
  • Limited explanation to patient of unfavorable prognosis
  • Suicide permitted in cases of mental or physical suffering
• During the Middle Ages, accompanying the ill and dying was considered an essential duty of the doctor, but not at any cost - the emphasis was on compassion
• Medieval medicine developed mostly with the works of Islamic philosophers and physicians who used the foundations of classical medicine and connected them to the dogmas of Islam
• Adab al-Tabib


  The first medical ethics text, written by the Arab physician Isaac ibn 'Ali al-Ruhawi in the 9th century
• Razes


  A Persian philosopher, physician and apothecary who wrote about ethics in medicine in his book "The Virtuous Life"
• Maimonides


  A famous Jewish medical ethicist who wrote "The Art of Healing" and the Prayer of Maimonides
• During the Middle Ages in Europe, medicine and ethics developed under the influence of the Christian religion
• The Hippocratic Oath was valid and received universal approval during the Middle Ages

  
• Beliefs against abortion, suicide and euthanasia were held during the Middle Ages