Law Commons^™

Medical Remedies And Human Rights: Why Civil Rights Lawyers Must Become Involved In Medical Decision-Making, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

As recently as the turn of the century a random patient meeting a random physician had less than a 50:50 chance of benefiting from the encounter. Physicians were just beginning to emerge from the era when they were essentially tradesmen, often with little more to offer their patients than comfort and company during illness and death. The principal causes of mortality were the infectious diseases against which the medical community stood impotent. There were few medical schools, few diagnostic tests, no specific treatment of disease, and no specialization of physicians. In the words of former AMA president Dwight L. Wilbur, …