MEDRADSC 3Y03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Racial Hygiene, Social Darwinism, Nuremberg Laws
30 Jan 2020
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Lecture #2b: the medical ethos, social darwinism, racial hygiene, sterilization, nuremberg trials/code. Interlocking set of views about the patient, the physician, & the medical enterprise. Historical core values of medicine = compassion, healing, relief of suffering. Main goal was to heal & alleviate of suffering. Compassion is best seen through wet eyes - have to cry it, live through it to feel it. Primum non nocere = first, do no harm. Responsibilities of physician not stratified on the basis of a hierarchy of worth or on social priorities of the state. Long held view that the ethos was immutable. Values were stable despite individual & cultural variation. Best known contributions to the science of evolution. All species of life have descended over time from common ancestors. Artificial selection & breeding would fit into this. 19th century shift in social balance inspired by darwin. The poor, misfits, & genetically feeble could vs the talented, able, & genetically strong.
