Aligning Faith with Medicine: Medical Ethics, Reproduction and Catholic Morality in Francophone and Anglophone Normative Literature, c. 1840–1960*
This paper focuses on intersections of medical ethics and religious commitments by charting conceptions of the Catholic doctor in French and English-language normative texts from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. Behavioural norms for doctors were increasingly emphasised in writings o...
Authors: | ; ; ; |
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Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Published: |
Wiley-Blackwell
2022
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In: |
Journal of religious history
Year: 2022, Volume: 46, Issue: 3, Pages: 439-459 |
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Carrel, Alexis 1873-1944
/ Europe
/ Catholic church
/ Physician
/ Moral theology
/ Reproductive medicine
/ History 1840-1960
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RelBib Classification: | CF Christianity and Science CH Christianity and Society KAH Church history 1648-1913; modern history KAJ Church history 1914-; recent history KBA Western Europe KDB Roman Catholic Church NCF Sexual ethics NCH Medical ethics |
Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
Summary: | This paper focuses on intersections of medical ethics and religious commitments by charting conceptions of the Catholic doctor in French and English-language normative texts from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. Behavioural norms for doctors were increasingly emphasised in writings on pastoral medicine, especially regarding obstetrics and advice on sexual hygiene, with the Ten Commandments and the Sacraments forming the initial ethical framework. From the 1890s, Catholic medical deontology emerged as a genre in its own right, reflecting a distinct identity of Catholic doctors in medical faculties and in their own professional societies. Simultaneously, the range of topics broadened. While traditional issues of reproductive ethics such as medical abortion and emergency baptism remained central concerns, eugenic sterilisation and euthanasia posed new challenges. Catholic doctors were now expected to take on a social role that went beyond the care of their individual patients, especially in questions of population politics. A popular contributor to the eugenics debate was the French medical scientist Alexis Carrel. |
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ISSN: | 1467-9809 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of religious history
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1111/1467-9809.12871 |