History and consent

This issue contains two papers related to the historical dimensions of medical ethics. The first and most straightforwardly historical paper is the short paper by Selek in which he reports a formal contract for medical services signed before the court in Gaziantep, Turkey in 1539 (see page 639). In the contract the patient's illness and the surgery to be performed are described, the fee stated and the surgeon absolved from responsibility if the patient dies. This contract is in many ways different from current consent forms, but even if it only contains 8 lines of text it still shows that modern legal ideas about consent have ancient roots, and that these roots can be found in many different legal systems.

The second paper by Kaufmann and Rühli is concerned …