The social sensitivity in the history of medicine of the 19th-20th centuries: political ideology or European humanism? Medical ethics between coercion and conviction

摘要

The physician’s social status has been always related to the political ideology applied at different times and in different places. The XVIII century represented ?the golden age” for doctors while, the next century was a time when they were seen as ?servants of the new regime”. Moreover, the political ideology along with poverty transformed the physician’s humanitarian mission. An ethical attitude became more a personal choice and less a general rule that was required as an important part of medical profession. In addition to this, the socio-political environment was not always supportive for physicians, trying, more than once, to transform them in ?tools” in order to serve the political power. In spite of all of these, physicians did not forget that people are always more important than any political ideology and thus, they have to be the physician’s priority.