[History of health care: from Jean-Jacque Rousseau to the Genetic Enhancement Project].
The present paper is intended to analyse the history of structural changes in the concept of health since the Enlightenment era. It will outline that health can be understood as a paradisiacal state of nature (Rousseau), as the result of the application of medical procedures and repair techniques (scientific medicine of the 19th and 20th century) or as a dissolving borderline concept (genetic enhancement techniques). The aim of medicine, i.e. health, must therefore be seen as a historically changeable concept. Given these changes in our understanding of health, ethical questions arise as to which concept of health ought to guide future medical practice.
Institut für Geschichte und Ethik der Medizin, Universität zu Köln. christian.hick@uni-koeln.de
Christian
C
Hick
D005602:France; D005826:Genetics, Medical / Q000266:history*; D006285:Health Planning / Q000266:history*; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century