[The three lifes of Doctor Joseph-Ignace Guillotin (1738-1814)]

The life of Joseph-Ignace Guillotin can be divided into three periods. The first part of his life consists of his training and his settling as a medical consultant and influential freemason from 1738 to 1788. The second part primarily consists of his political role for a short period during the Revolution (from 1788 to 1791). It was during that time that he proposed a change in the functioning of the General States, a penal Code reform, and the reorganization of the teaching and medical exercice. Finally, during the third period of his life, he focused on promoting vaccination against smallpox and founded with others the present-day Academy of Medicine of Paris.