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Milestones in Jewish Medical Ethics
Halperin, Mordechai
Halperin, Mordechai
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Abstract
"It is important to distinguish between two types of ethics: ethical rules that draw their force from moral systems and ethical codes that create, clarify and institutionalize work relations and protect the rights of members of various professional guilds.5 This overview will only address ethical systems of the first type. Modern medical ethics, developed rapidly during the second half of the twentieth century, when the Western world was faced with the horrors of World War II. Medical ethics incorporates medicine, philosophy, religion, law, history, psychology, sociology, and education. If in the past the preoccupation with medical ethics had been in the hands of a few, the majority of whom were physicians that already worked in the field, today this branch has developed to be a popular field of interest not only for physicians but for experts in other fields as well as the wider public. It should be pointed out that much of modern medical ethics originated in the United States and the United Kingdom and therefore does not necessarily reflect the approaches and philosophies of other Western countries, and that they certainly fail to reflect those of the Third World, East Europe, and the Far East. It is neither logical nor justified to assert that the values and customs of a few Western countries should dictate medical ethics policy to other countries, especially secular Western countries to religious countries. There are very deep differences between the secular Western approach and other religions.6 By its very nature secular ethics differs from any legal system. Legal systems generally take a definite stand on the issues they deal with, regardless of differences of opinion among judges or other authorities. Many maintain that ethics, in contrast, does not pretend to decide moral dilemmas with any degree of finality. Its aim is to define the problems, clarify the factors involved, and propose logical solutions."(pg 45)
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2004
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With permission of the license/copyright holder