The Origins of a Modern Medical Ethics in Enlightenment Scotland: Cheyne, Gregory and Cullen as Practitioners of Sensibility.

Abstract

The foundations of a modern medical ethics does not appear in Britain until the late-eighteenth century, with the publication of John Gregory's Lectures on the Duties and Qualifications of a Physician in 1772. Focusing on the contemporary Moral Sense philosophical ideas formulated primarily by leading members of the Kirk, and the medical writings of the Scottish physicians, George Cheyne, John Gregory, and William Cullen, this chapter explores the fusion of classical and holistic Christian-based medical ethics. It is argued that it was the convergence of new theories of nervous sensibility, Scottish Enlightenment, Christian-based sentimental moral philosophies, and the rhetoric of the "man of feeling" that created a new modern medical ethics.