Andreas-Holger Maehle - Böcker

Medical confidentiality is an essential cornerstone of effective public health systems, and for centuries societies have struggled to maintain the illusion of absolute privacy. In this age of health databases and increasing connectedness, however, the confidentiality of patient information is rapidly becoming a concern at the forefront of worldwide ethical and political debate. In Contesting Medical Confidentiality, Andreas-Holger Maehle travels back to the origins of this increasingly relevant issue. He offers the first comparative analysis of professional and public debates on medical confidentiality in the United States, Britain, and Germany during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when traditional medical secrecy first came under pressure from demands of disclosure in the name of public health. Maehle structures his study around three representative questions of the time that remain salient today: Do physicians have a privilege to refuse court orders to reveal confidential patient details? Is there a medical duty to report illegal procedures to the authorities? Should doctors breach confidentiality in order to prevent the spread of disease?Considering these debates through a unique historical perspective, Contesting Medical Confidentiality illuminates the ethical issues and potentially grave consequences that continue to stir up public debate.

Albert Moll (1862–1939) was a Berlin psychiatrist and neurologist whose work helped establish psychotherapy, sexology, and medical ethics as scientific disciplines. In Andreas-Holger Maehle’s first scientific biography, Moll, who has often remained in the shadow of eminent contemporaries, emerges as a pivotal and controversial figure who merits sustained scholarly attention.Moll made influential contributions to the treatment of nervous and sexual disorders, most notably by introducing hypnotic suggestion therapy in Germany despite strong resistance. Working outside Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis, he developed his own theory of sexuality and a distinctive therapeutic approach to what were then labeled deviant desires. As a founder of sexual science, he served as a medical expert in court cases, and his distinction between physical and affectionate components of desire proved enduring. Moll’s intellectual independence was connected with uncompromising commitment to scientific objectivity, and this set him apart from his contemporaries. He rejected Freud’s emphasis on childhood sexuality; criticized Magnus Hirschfeld’s activist sexual politics; opposed parapsychology and occultism; and, in Ärztliche Ethik (1902), he reconceived the doctor-patient relationship as a tacit contract centred on patient self-determination, particularly in hospital experimentation. Moll’s ideas anticipated later principles of autonomy and informed consent, while his public criticism of unethical practices in Berlin hospitals, alongside his other public disputes, marginalized him.Drawing on scientific and popular writings, as well as archival sources including Moll’s forensic reports, this engaging biography offers a compelling account of an innovator and fierce critic in the medical world of Imperial and Weimar Germany.Top of FormBottom of Form

This title was first published in 2002: This volume discusses the subject of biomedical ethics. Various views, historical and contemporary, are discussed, with the editors using the contrasting concepts in the shift from paternalism to autonomy in 20th-century medicine as a heuristic tool for the critical study of ethics in medicine.As far as the evidence in this volume goes, paternalistic medical practices and patient autonomy had an uneasy relationship by the beginning of the 20th century. A hundred years later, full autonomy in decisions on medical treatment is still subject to numerous caveats. The text pays close attention to the interplay between various players, noting how factors such as social contexts, governmental organizations and the biotechnological industry influence and shape responses to the principle of bioethics.

This title was first published in 2002: This volume discusses the subject of biomedical ethics. Various views, historical and contemporary, are discussed, with the editors using the contrasting concepts in the shift from paternalism to autonomy in 20th-century medicine as a heuristic tool for the critical study of ethics in medicine.As far as the evidence in this volume goes, paternalistic medical practices and patient autonomy had an uneasy relationship by the beginning of the 20th century. A hundred years later, full autonomy in decisions on medical treatment is still subject to numerous caveats. The text pays close attention to the interplay between various players, noting how factors such as social contexts, governmental organizations and the biotechnological industry influence and shape responses to the principle of bioethics.