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The idea of reviewing the ethical concerns of ancient medicine with an eye as to how they might instruct us about the extremely lively disputes of our own contemporary medicine is such a natural one that it surprises us to real ize how very slow we have been to pursue it in a sustained way_ Ideologues have often seized on the very name of Hippocrates to close off debate about such matters as abortion and euthanasia - as if by appeal to a well-known and sacred authority that no informed person would care or dare to oppose_ And yet, beneath the polite fakery of such reference, we have deprived our selves of a familiarity with the genuinely 'unsimple' variety of Greek and Roman reflections on the great questions of medical ethics. The fascination of recovering those views surely depends on one stunning truism at least: humans sicken and die; they must be cared for by those who are socially endorsed to specialize in the task; and the changes in the rounds of human life are so much the same from ancient times to our own that the disputes and agreements of the past are remarkably similar to those of our own.
List of contents
One/ The Social and Scientific Setting.- I/ The Status of the Physician.- II/ Theories of Health and Disease.- III/ Attitudes Toward Death.- Two/ The Rise of Medical Ethics.- IV/ Who was Hippocrates?.- V/ The Hippocratic Oath.- Three/ Abortion and Euthanasia.- VI/ The Problem of Abortion.- VII/ The Problem of Euthanasia.- VIII/ The Physician's Moral Responsibility.- IX/ Conclusion.- X/ Epilogue.- Appendices.- Appendix A.- Principles of Medical Ethics.- Appendix B.- A Patient's Bill of Rights.- Appendix C.- Declaration of Geneva.- Notes.- Select Bibliography.
Report
`... a thorough and scholarly survey of issues in medical ethics that have always provided dilemmas for patients, physicians, and generally, members of the society. The book will serve to correct a multitude of errors we all tend to make concerning ancient ethical beliefs and practices. We have much to learn from Professor Carrick, who examines and expounds that wisdom with great felicity.'
JAMA (December 1986)
