[Medical ethics in the clinical context -- a new concept by the physician Richard C. Cabot]

Richard C. Cabot was a professor of medicine and philosophy at Harvard University. He developed a very practical system of medical ethics structured by the hospital, its patients and care givers. Clearly he differentiated between a concept from an inside perspective and a concept born from an outside perspective. Thus, he opposed to the orientation to ethical codes which the American Medical Association established since 1847 (the outside perspective). The code-tradition was oriented by principles without professional context, while Cabot focused his concept of ethics rather on duty, which can not be reflected without its context (the inside perspective). This paper displays the essentials of his concept of ethics: 1) communication as the substantial core of medicine, 2) the basis in cases, 3) the multi/-interdisciplinarity, 4) the focus on the structure of therapy, i.e. care giving, 5) the respect of the patient, and 6) the obligation by truth.