Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-12-21
AMERICAN MEDICAL ETHICS
Annual Address of Dr.. s. G. Eusey, Presi-
dent of District Society.
Medicine as Composite Sciencc-Code
tees Demanding Legislation.

Inc annual address of the president of
the Medical Society of the District, Dr.
samuel C. Busey, was delivered last even
ing under the auspices of the Washington
Academy OF Sciences in the assembly hall
oi the Columbian University Mr. Charles
D. Walcott presided. and seated upon the
platform Were Surgeon General Sternberg
and DR.. kober. The audience which was
representative of the medical profession of
the District, followed with close attention
the discussion of the subject of American
Medical Ethics"
Inc speaker defined ethics to be the ad-
Jrstment of acts to ends. and he said that
in medicine the acts relate for the most
part to conduct. He went on to say that
there Is no occupation or trade without
rules of-conduct, either written or unwrit-
ten medicine Is a composite science he
sad and Is confessediy the most difficult
and intricate of sciences. The medical pro-
feSSlon Is perhaps the largest and most
broadly educated class in every civilized
community. Accessions come to it from
every class and race of civilized peoples.
In the broadness of thought and the benefi-
cenCe OF Its acts ana ends it invites every
class and caste of civilized races to its
ranks. that it may continuously widen and
expand the scope of its usefulness and phi
iahthropy, to the end that every person
and all people may seek and obtain through
its good offices the full assurance of a
ptithCeHt SEltHCe- IN TINS country the eEO-
luton of medical ethics eliminated in the
adoption in Philadelphia in 1871 by a body
Oh representative men now known as the
American Medical Association. of a code
OF American medical ethics which with a
few explanatory declarations, has been ac-
cepted by the profession at large as the
common basis and guide of good conduct"
Section. of the Code.
This code, he said, is divided into three
sections under the separate headings of
The duties of physicians to their pa
TENTS: of the obligations of patients to
their physicians; of the duties of physicians
to each other and to the profession at
large, and of the duties of the profession
to the public and of the obligations of the
public to the profession
The code, he added, is free from any
threat or restraint by prosecutions and
penalties. He referred to the invioa bility
of the confidential communications of pa
tients to their physicians, and said that
in twenty states and in this District the
protection of statute law has been given to
this feature OF the code. He spoke of the
reforms and progress made in sanitary
legislation, in the equipment of hospitals
and other public benefits the outcome
of those precepts in the code which
entoin the duties of good citizenship. He
said that, as good citizens it is the duty
of physicians to be ever vigilant for the
welfare of the community and they should
ever be ready to give counsel in relation
to matters especially appertaining to their
profession, as on subjects of medical police,
public hygiene and legal medicine.
A Cardinal Tenet.
Non-sectarianism, Dr. Busey said, is
cardinal tenet of the code. THE creed of
medicine condemns the idolatrous dogmas
OF divine metaphysics, divine healing.
Christian science and other equally fraud
ulent practices and relegates them to
the Jurisdiction of criminal codes The
spirit and precepts of the code have been
legalized in most of the states by medical
practice acts. In this District three sys-
TENS of medicine have been legalized with
the requirements Of the same standard of
qualification of Hcentiates in the branches
of anatomy, physiology, chemistry, pathol-
ogy, hygiene, histology, surgery, obstetrics
and gynecology. diseases of the eye and
ear and medical Jurisprudence. leaving the
qualifications in the branches of materia
medica, therapeutics and practice to be de-
termined by the special requirements of
each system.