systlin:
neatlittlenotebooks:
systlin:
So I’m reading “Medieval and Renaissance Medicine” by...
So I’m reading “Medieval and Renaissance Medicine” by Benjamin L. Gordon and I just note that for the vast stretch of human history, it was considered a doctor’s duty to treat the poor for free, to the point where royal decrees were issued saying that doctors had to treat the poor free of charge.
(Fredrick II of Sicily, in particular, set the following forth as the code of physicians and surgeons, along with some bits on how a doctor must have attended lectures in logic for 3 years and lectures in medicine and surgery for 5 years, and spent a year practicing under the direction of an experienced doctor.)
“Fees of the Physician According to the Code
A. The poor must be treated without charge.”
Also, unrelated but I found it interesting; a doctor was ordered by law to do house calls, and could charge half a tarenus in travel fees for patients in his city.
I imagine this has something to do with the church’s beliefs about chariety? They used to believe a lot should be done for the poor
Partly, but it goes back further than that.
The Greeks would often have doctors paid by the city who were ‘public doctors’; they earned an annual wage and then would treat anyone who came to them. If a rich man wished to retain a private doctor, he of course could, but the poor had access to doctors for free. This was considered a basic service.
Later on, of course, Christian ideas of charity towards the poor entered into it as well, but the idea that poor people should be treated without cost is very, very old. The idea that poor people should be charged tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars for treatment is very, very new, and runs counter to basic human morality going back a couple thousand years.
