Biomedical subjects
B Elkeles
Publications and source records attributed to B Elkeles.
[Moral considerations in the re-introduction of blood transfusion in the 19th century].
The reintroduction of human blood transfusion in the 19th century repeatedly gave rise to discussions within the profession whether this dangerous therapeutic procedure might be justified or not. Those who used it protested that they did not act irresponsibly or without a valuable indication. They stressed the possibly life-saving effect of transfusion in desperate cases, especially in cholera victims and in obstetrical cases with extreme loss of blood. Their opponents, on the other hand, emphasized the high risk and the insufficient theoretical basis of the procedure. This historical discussion illustrates a dilemma that is of great importance in medical ethics up to the present day.
[Suicide prevention as an ethical problem].
The modern understanding of suicide as a cry for help has to face the question, whether or not the human right of freedom of the will is respected. A second historically rooted concept rules suicide as an illegal act. A third concept accepts suicide as the ultimate refuge from unbearable suffering. It is problematic, because it does not respect sufficiently the value of human life.
[The "tuberculin intoxication" of 1890].
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[Ethical problems in the treatment of chronically ill patients].
Doctors must help chronically ill patients to find a new balance and a state of relative health. Patient information plays an important role. On the other hand, total monopolization of patients and medicalization must be prevented. This is a special problem of holistic concepts of health care.
[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.
Medizinische Menschenversuche gegen Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts und der Fall Neisser.
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