[The end of a myth? The topic of charity care of indigent patients in deontologic texts especially in the 17th century].
Deontological writings of the 17th and early 18th century frequently stress an obligation of physicians to provide free medical care to the poor. This obligation can be traced to medical writings of antiquity and to medieval civil and canon law. Medical authors of early modern times restricted this duty in many respects: they emphasized that a physician was obliged to treat without remuneration only if the patient was in mortal danger, if nobody else could be found to pay for the treatment, if no other physicians were available, or if the patient himself had called on him for help. In this context, a debate on the definition of poverty played a decisive role. Physicians employed by towns or by the state were obliged to provide free treatment to a well defined group of poor inhabitants. Still, the general right of physicians to their fees was strongly emphasized too. On the basis of the deontological sources of the 17th and 18th century it is not possible to determine to what degree physicians of the time did in fact offer free medical care to the poor. A moral obligation to offer treatment to all persons who could not afford the physicians' fees, did not exist.
Elkeles
B
B
Abteilung Geschichte der Medizin, Medizinische Hochschule Hannover.
D002608:Charities / Q000266:history*; D004992:Ethics, Medical / Q000266:history*; D005060:Europe; D049669:History, 16th Century; D049670:History, 17th Century; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049691:History, Medieval; D006801:Humans; D008489:Medical Indigency / Q000266:history*; D012068:Religion and Medicine
Das Ende eines Mythos? Die Frage der unentgeltlichen Behandlung armer Kranker in deontologischen Texten vornehmlich des 17. Jahrhunderts.