9/13/14
The Hippocratic ideal was expanded by doctors such as Thomas
Browne (seventeenth-century), a godly physician who was one of the first to
write on medical ethics and whole-person care. Thomas Percival, a zealous
social reformer as well as a physician of integrity, drew up the first
professional code of ethics in the eighteenth-century. From that time Christian
thought has shaped much of the modern profession's ethical conduct, promoting
personal integrity, truthfulness and honesty.
Many early GPs were religious men, and non-believers often
unconsciously continued to follow the prevailing general principles of
Christian ethics. Two devastating world wars, followed by increasing
secularization and humanistic thought, combined with rapidly advancing ability
to perform new medical procedures, have brought about unprecedented ethically
uncertain situations. Bioengineering, genetics and surgery urgently require new
codes of ethics, and many of the current laws and suggestions by regulatory
bodies have been influenced by the Christian attitude and outlook.
Isa 45:7 I
form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the
LORD, who does all these things.
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