ABSTRACT
In Germany, medical professional ethics in the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century was characterised by distinct developments. This chapter shows how rules of conduct were set up and enforced by medical professional bodies in order to demarcate doctors from non-licensed healers and to defuse competition among doctors themselves. The requirements of conscientious practice and confidentiality were crucial parts of this ethic and also had legal status. Moreover, ethical guidance on clinical experimentation did not find much resonance in the medical profession. Although new guidelines extending the requirement of consent to therapeutic trials were issued by the Ministry of the Interior in 1931, they failed to prevent the atrocious human experiments in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany. Medical professional ethics in Germany had largely emerged in response to economic pressures, legal decisions, and health policies of the state, rather than from intense moral debate.
