engleski

Deontological aspects of medical practice in Dubrovnik (Ragusa) in the late middle ages

After gaining its independence in 1358, the Republic of Dubrovnik succeeded in becoming influential and stable Mediterranean state. Its influence was based on the role of trade middleman between East and West and its stability on the firm ruling structure. These characteristics of the Republic of Dubrovnik had a great influence on the development of its health policy. Trade, with large inflow of people and goods also meant a constant threat of epidemics, which resulted in the organisation of complex and well functioning public health system. On the other hand, regarding the second characteristic - firm ruling structure, it must be noted that the relation public-private was different than today; everything was regarded public and the Republic of Dubrovnik tried to control every aspect of life of its citizens, including the state of their health. Besides physicians who had the private practice, a communal physician and surgeon were regularly hired by the government and they, besides medical care, provided other sorts of services, such as reporting wounds and violent deaths to the authorities.In this paper, we shall try to establish the relationship of physicians towards the government on one and their patients on the other side, and the way these two relationship reflected on each other. We shall also try to find out which ethical questions were posed to medical professionals of the late Middle Ages (physician's secret, right for equal treatment, respect for life, readiness to offer medical treatment when needed) and the way medical professionals solved these questions. The sources used for this research are records of criminal justice, Lamenta criminalia, that can be found at the Historical archive in Dubrovnik. These records of criminal justice represent a promising source for such a research because in criminal procedures physician appeared as plaintiff, defendant and witness; by using this variety of data we can form a complex picture of the status of physician inside the society , his duties and rights, his obligations towards the state and towards his patients.

Medical ethics; denthology; Dubrovnik; Croatia; History

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