[Medical ethics and politics - one aspect of the history of medical ethics].

Medical ethics became a medical topic of its own in the 16th and 17th centuries as a part of what could be called "public medicine". They served the interests of University-trained doctors by strenghthening their autonomy and by submitting their rivals to medical control. The patients' interests are considered more or less identical with the doctor's. Towards the 19th century an ideologization of medical ethics is observable which has partly been responsible for the inhumane ethical concepts of certain of the 20th century collectivists as well as for certain inhumanities within individualistic ethics of our times and regions. When these ideologies became problematic the question of the relation between patient's and doctor's interests arose. For this and other reasons medical ethics have been rethought in the 60s of the present century. Increased attention has been paid to the realm of non-standardizable ethical behaviour. Thus "situation ethics" were conceived - and, more recently, "communication ethics" which arises from social interchange. Where his own interests are concerned, these ethical concepts require the doctor, not to pursue or deny them but simply to be aware of and to discuss them openly. The practical equivalent of communication ethics is the doctor's dialogue with a patient who personally looks after his own interests, as well as ethical commissions and interdisciplinary symposia on medical ethics. Thus medical ethics are again part of a "public medicine". This development is congruent with the interests of the medical profession insofar as this profession and its concepts have been severely criticized in the last twenty years - an open discussion of medical ethics might contribute to medicine's equilibrium.