Abstract

Students who study bioethics today usually learn very little about the medical ethics of physicians prior to the 1970’s. The practices of earlier physicians are often characterized as being paternalistic and lacking in respect for patient autonomy and justice. Yet just as the emergence of bioethics was shaped by social context, so was the medical ethics that preceded it. This paper is a work in “descriptive ethics,” which explores the de facto morality of physicians roughly between 1940 and 1970. De facto morality refers to the profession’s officially endorsed standards as stated in its codes of ethics and related documents, the beliefs held by most physicians about the moral issues in medicine, and the patterns of morally relevant conduct practiced by most physicians.