Medical Ethics in Imperial China
Subtitle: A Study in Historical Anthropology (Comparative Studies of Health Systems & Medical Care)
Publisher: Univ of California Pr
Published: May 1979
Language: eng; ger
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 149
ISBN-13: 9780520035430
Subjects: China; History; Medical ethics; Medicine, Chinese; Physicians; Practice
Description: The ethics of Chinese physicians were formulated during the Confucian era and advocated the interests of the general public. Medical resources in China were distributed to shamans (up to this century), Buddhist monks, Taoist hermits, Confucian scholars, itinerant and established physicians, laymen, midwives, and many others. Conflict over distribution of those resources affected everyone. Independently practicing physicians acquired more and more control. Ethical debates were used to centralize resources among physicians. Prognosis has become increasingly significant as a means of protection and reputation. A formulated ethics from the elite group of physicians must not only subject itself to the values dominating society but create values in the advanced medical regions; e.g., allocation of resources to preserve life.