Medical ethics in history

ABC Radio National's Health Report recently aired a fascinating program entitled, Lack of medical ethics - from the 19th century to Nazi Germany. Paul Weindling, the Wellcome Trust Professor of the History of Medicine at Oxford Brookes University, discussed how before the 19th Century, the term "medical ethics" really meant professional courtesy - how doctors related to each other. He went on to describe the origins of modern bioethics and explained that what went on in Nazi Germany and the concentration camps didn't come out of the blue - it was an extension of longstanding medical practices in countries like Britain and the United States, taken to inhuman extremes.
You can listen to the podcast or read the transcript at the Health Report site.