Code Of Hammurabi Research Articles

The Fascinating Code of Hammurabi: Wow! I Didn't Know That!

The Fascinating Code of Hammurabi: Wow! I Didn't Know That!

Vandals at the Gate of Medicine: Historic Perspectives on the Battle Over Health Care Reform

According to an old Cuban proverb, "<i>Camarón que se duerme, se lo lleva la corriente</i>" (shrimp that sleep are swept away by the current). Some physicians may find Dr Faria's wake-up call as welcome as a blast of Arctic wind. In his view, the current policy of most medical organizations—"nonconfrontation and cooperation"—could make them, in effect, accomplices of the barbarians. From Faria's historic perspective, the currents that some consider the wave of the future are as old as the Code of Hammurabi. Because of the threat of severe government reprisals, the most knowledgeable physicians in the civilized world at that time recommended against treating patients—the ultimate "defensive medicine." As an example of a leader who forestalled imminent collapse in a time of crisis, Faria points to Diocletian. Although he subdued military enemies and reestablished law and order, his domestic "reforms" accelerated the corrosion of the foundations of the Roman Republic.

Risk, Predicting Outcomes, and Improving Care

Although outcomes research and outcomes-driven quality assessment and improvement are the fads of the nineties, interest in healthcare outcomes is hardly new. The Code of Hammurabi in the 19th century BC specified the first outcomes-based standard of care: “If a physician shall make a severe wound with an operating knife and kill (the patient). . .(the surgeon’s) hand shall be cut off.”1 More recently, Earnest Amory Codman believed so strongly in the use of outcomes to assess the quality of surgery that he formed his own hospital, the End-Result Hospital, in Boston in 1914. We are in the midst of rediscovering what Codman told the Philadelphia Medical Society in 1913: “We must formulate some method of hospital report showing as nearly as possible what are the results of the treatment obtained at different institutions. This report must be made out and published by each hospital in a uniform manner, so that comparison will be possible. With such a report as a starting point, those interested can begin to ask questions as to the management and efficiency.”2 It is almost intuitive that if outcomes are to be used as quality indicators, they must be adjusted for severity of patient illness. Iezzoni,3 using the phrase “algebra of effectiveness,” stated that healthcare outcomes are a function of clinical and other patient attributes, effectiveness of care, and other factors, including random events. However, the adjustment of healthcare outcome rates for severity of illness and comorbidity is of recent vintage.4 The first large-scale use of risk adjustment driven by reimbursement issues, the …

Children, Adolescents, and Advertising

Advertising is a powerful force in American culture. It exists to sell products and services. In 1750 BC the Code of Hammurabi made it a crime, punishable by death, to sell anything to a child without first obtaining a power of attorney. In the 1990s, selling products to American children has become a standard business practice. American children have viewed an estimated 360 000 advertisements on television before graduating from high school.1 Additional exposures include advertisements on the radio, in print media, on public transportation, and billboards. Commercials have even entered the classroom through programs like Channel One—video equipment packaged with current events programming that contains commercials. The principal goal of commercial children's television is to sell products to children, with food and toys being the two most frequently advertised product categories.2 Advertisers generally use two approaches to sell their products. The traditional method places commercials in programs that are attractive to children. These commercials promote products unrelated to the program being shown. The second approach, begun in 1982, features toy action figures as the main characters of a program. Because these programs are often developed by the marketing division of toy companies to market specific toys, they are frequently referred to as "program-length commercials." The Children's Television Act of 1990 mandates that all broadcasters carry children's educational or instructional programming as a condition for license renewal. One of the problems of the current law is that stations can cite public service announcements (PSAs) or short vignettes as evidence of compliance.

Developments in anticonvulsants.

Epilepsy is one of the oldest of common human ailments and is mentioned in ancient writings such as the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi 2080 BC and in the Hebrew scriptures. Its clinical description was given by Hippocrates in his monograph (ca. 400 BC) on the disease [1]. In earlier times the paroxysmal, uncontrollable behaviour of epileptics was thought to be due to their possession by evil spirits or demons and hence the disease was known as the “sacred disease” in some cultures. Such superstitious beliefs were gradually discarded with the advancement in medical sciences, firstly in diagnosis of epilepsy and a better understanding of its cause and of various types of seizures and secondly in the development of antiepileptic drugs. These advancements have led to the availability of effective medication for epilepsy patients. The agents used in the treatment of different types of epilepsy are termed as anticonvulsants.

Legal and Theological Justice for Abused Adolescent Girls

Theology and law share much in common, including a long history of justifying violence against women. Critics of legal and religious institutions need not look far to find texts offering evidence that both kinds of institutions are hopelessly mired in a patriarchal history that renders them obsolete, and apparently unable to offer anything significant concerning justice for young women victims of abuse. These ancient texts unapologetically proclaim that young women were to be treated as property of their fathers or husbands: Lot went out of the door to the men, shut the door after him, and said, “I beg you my brothers, do not act so wickedly. Look, I have two daughters who have not known a man; let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please; only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof.”—Genesis 19: 6-8. [W]hether it [rape of a female virgin] was within the city or in the open country or at night in the (public) street or in a garner or at a festival of the city, the father of the virgin shall take the wife of the ravisher of the virgin (and) give her to be dishonored; he shall not give her (back) to her husband (but) shall take her. The father shall give his daughter who has been ravished as a spouse to her ravisher.—Codex Hammurabi.

The Phrase "His Heart Is Satisfied" in Ancient Near Eastern Legal Sources

AP A. Cowley, The Aramaic Papyri of the Fifth Century B.C. (see n. 11). BAP B. Meissner, Beitrage zum altbabylonischen Privatrecht (Leipzig, 1893). BE Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania, series A: Cuneiform Texts. BIN Babylonian Inscriptions the Collection of J. B. Nies. CH Codex Hammurabi. CT Cuneiform Textsfrom Babylonian Tablets the British Museum. TCL Textes cuneiformes du Louvre. UCP H.L.F. Lutz, Legal and Economic Documents from Ashjaly, University of California Publications Semitic Philology, vol. X (1931-1946). VAB Vorderasiatische Bibliothek. VAS Vorderasiatische Schriftdenkmaler der Koniglichen Museen zu Berlin. YOS Yale Oriental Series. On the other, it seems, at first sight, utterly superfluous. It is unnecessary both as a receipt (since it frequently follows an express statement that the receiver has been paid) and as a quitclaim (since it frequently precedes an express statement that no claims may be made). Nor, as Muffs has shown his classic study of the phrase, can it have anything to do with volition (as might be suggested by the similar-sounding expression in the joy of his heart).2 Small wonder, then, that Muffs analyzes it as a many-faceted term of considerable subtlety,3 containing some aspects of practically all the other contractual clauses and forming a kind of bridge between them. The result is, unfortunately, altogether too complex and fails to satisfy legal logic. Muffs identifies three principal types of transaction which the phrase has its typical function: sale, settlement of litigation, and receipt of the bride-price.4 In all three, one party relinquishes rights return for a quid pro quo: The seller relinquishes his rights over his property return for payment of the price, the litigant foregoes his claims return for payment or the rendering of an oath, and the father of the bride gives his daughter away marriage return for the bride-price. To take the case of sale, the relevant clauses are, for example:

Le voyage des motifs. II. La Lune, le Soleil et le Feu

In Japanese Buddhist sculpture and painting of 7th and 8th centuries, several bodhisattva have their tiara or diadem decorated with a disk cradled by a crescent. This pattern is also seen in Korea and mainly in China where it appeared about the 5th century. Some scholars had shown this disk-and-crescent motif, which is rather frequent in Buddhist paintings of Afghanistan, took its origin from Sasanian kings crowns. But in fact, it is more ancient: we can see it on the rock grave of King Darius (522-486 B.C.) and even on a cylinder-seal from Susa dating from the 3rd millenary. This motif is probably an abbreviated repesentation of the Sumerian astral trinity, that is to say Moon, Sun and Star (planet Venus). On the other hand, the disk-and-crescent pattern is seen too in Egyptian art. For example, the Sun cradled by horns of god-bull Apis and goddess-cow Hathor, or covering the head of Sun-god Amon-Rê's sacred ram. By the way, the theme of solar ram had existed in Northern Africa since the Neolithic period, and is also known to-day in Western Black Africa. Another pattern in Japanese Buddhist sculpture of the 7th century is flames springing from bodhisattva shoulders. Unknown in Korea, very rare in China, this motif appeared in certain of Gandharan statues. But its origin is older: such flames are spurting out of shoulders of Babylonian Sun-god Shamash, as it is represented on the famous stele of Hammurabi's Code (18th c. B.C.) and also on Mesopotamian cylinders from the 3rd millenary. The fact that this Fire motif had been transmitted to Buddhist statues let suppose relations between Buddha and Light or Sun gods in Middle and Near East, especially Persia. And the golden colour of Buddha's body has perhaps some connection with beliefs of ancient Egypt.

The Use of Theological Classics in Teaching Medical Ethics

To Editor.— Radwany and Adelson 1 consider ethics to be the division of philosophy that deals with questions of right and wrong. Ethics probably antedates philosophy, and codes of moral conduct such as Code of Hammurabi and Holy Bible are many centuries old. In addition to use of literary classics in teaching medical ethics to physicians, I suggest use of theological classics such as Bible, Talmud, and codes of Maimonides ( Mishneh Torah ) and Joseph Karo ( Shulchan Arukh ) in teaching of medical ethics. Such codes are, in nature and scope, roughly comparable to corpus of canon law. It is important to recognize interface of medical ethics and religion. Religion does not intrude into physician's medical prerogatives, provided considerations in question are purely medical. However, modern medicine has moved into new areas in which great moral issues are involved.

Shattuck lecture--what is quality care?

MY theme today relates to an ageless question in medicine: Just what is quality care? That question has been with us since the Code of Hammurabi was set down. And right here in Boston at the turn of the century, a surgeon named Codman came to grips with it. He said that the way to measure quality is to look at what happens to the patient after treatment.My approach to quality is much like his; when you ask me what quality care is all about, my first instinct is to reply that it is about people. But when you . . .

Medical Ethics and the Issue of Torture

From as early as 2000 BC, physicians have sworn to uphold the fundamental oaths that affirmed the sanctity of the physician's responsibilities to the patient. History chronicles the significant oaths—the Code of Hammurabi by the Babylonians, the Oath of Hippocrates during the Greek period, and in more recent years, the Code of Medical Ethics published in 1803 by Dr Thomas Percival, a physician as well as a philosopher. Without question, these provide the quintessential foundation of the profession of medicine. In keeping with this long tradition, the Preamble of the American Medical Association's (AMA) Principles of Medical Ethics states: "The medical profession has long subscribed to a body of ethical statements developed primarily for the benefit of the patients. As a member of this profession, a physician must recognize responsibility not only to patients, but also to society, to other health professionals and to self." The Preamble goes on to

Study of 'victimization' gains impetus worldwide

"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." Fine, but what about the psychological trauma inflicted on the first one-eyed, gap-toothed victim? The Code of Hammurabi didn't say much about that, nor does modern psychiatry. While the psychology of murderers, muggers, batterers, rapists, burglars, kidnappers, and arsonists has long fallen into the psychiatrist's domain, the severe emotional effects on the victims have, until lately, received much less attention. Now a small group of psychiatrists and social scientists has begun to study and report on this field of trauma, which is called "victimization." Several of them presented reports at this year's Seventh World Congress of Psychiatry in Vienna. In addition to the victims of felonies, investigators ("victimologists") also study victims of natural disasters and of any unexpected, unprovoked traumatic event because they believe that, whatever the trauma, the reactions are much the same. "There appears to be a generic

Study of 'victimization' gains impetus worldwide

"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." Fine, but what about the psychological trauma inflicted on the first one-eyed, gap-toothed victim? The Code of Hammurabi didn't say much about that, nor does modern psychiatry. While the psychology of murderers, muggers, batterers, rapists, burglars, kidnappers, and arsonists has long fallen into the psychiatrist's domain, the severe emotional effects on the victims have, until lately, received much less attention. Now a small group of psychiatrists and social scientists has begun to study and report on this field of trauma, which is called "victimization." Several of them presented reports at this year's Seventh World Congress of Psychiatry in Vienna. In addition to the victims of felonies, investigators ("victimologists") also study victims of natural disasters and of any unexpected, unprovoked traumatic event because they believe that, whatever the trauma, the reactions are much the same. "There appears to be a generic

Human Rights Development in Ancient Nepal

Code of Hammurabi--the world's most ancient code of laws dating from the second millenium B.C.-concerns slaves' rights, freedom, and women's rights. To illustrate how high a sense of justice and freedom had been cultivated by the people of the Vedic Age, we can refer to the Ikshvakus's verdict of guilty in a trial involving the king and a purohita who in a chariot had run over and killed a child on the street. The Chinese

Medical Ethics

NO AREA of medicine is more ancient and established than its ethics—yet more current and alterable. Formalized medical ethics are at least as old as the Code of Hammurabi, King of Babylon. In comparison, the Oath of Hippocrates is a latecomer. Yet, some aspects of ethics change and have to be reconsidered in the light of advances in medicine and changes in law, in custom, and in society's attitudes toward its ways of life and death. Such developments are reflected in the latest revision of the American Medical Association's Opinions and Reports of the Judicial Council , including such topics as test-tube fertilization, fetal research, genetic engineering, euthanasia, and even the moral criteria for medical costs. At the AMA's annual meeting in July 1980, the House of Delegates received an ad hoc committee report on principles of medical ethics, even though countless aspects of ethics seem to allow no final word.

Putting 'Treatment' on Trial

There has not, however, been much consistency with regard to the definition of the acts conceived to be punishable-or of the punishments considered appropriate. From time to time there has been some consideration of utility in the kinds of punishments awarded-slavery, galleys, work camps, and the like. At times there was consideration of symmetry between offense and punishment-an eye for an eye, bludgeoning of an architect if the building he constructed collapses (Hammurabi's Code), and so on. Punishment was frequently a matter of public display, which doubtless contained an element of deterrence to others but also provided a form of entertainment for the masses or an elite. (Crime retains a large entertainment value today, although we do not provide many public spectacles. News reports of actual crimes, of police work to detect criminals, of court proceedings, only add to fictional representations in the mass media to make up a large portion of our entertainment fare.) In any case, until recently there was relatively little regard paid to the probable effect of the punishment on the future life styles of the offenders. The idea of using punishment as a way of reducing the probability of further crimes on the part of the individual punished has gained its present prominence only in recent times. One expression of this idea is the widespread use of the term treatment for what happens to prisoners, carrying the suggestion that behavior control techniques, usually conceived within a medical or semi-medical framework, offer the proper approach to dealing with criminal offenders.

Post Mortem

<b>The Medical Detectives,</b>by Paulette Cooper, 238 pp, $6.95, David McKay Co., 1973. The first stirrings of legal medicine go back at least to the Code of Hammurabi, but the establishment of the specialty of forensic pathology is recent. In our country, where it is newer than in England and some parts of Europe, it goes back only to the replacement of our coroners by medical examiners in a scattering of cities and to the inauguration of a forensic pathology examination by the American Board of Pathology. Many physicians are still unaware of the way in which pathology can contribute to the solution of medicolegal problems. They therefore neglect important observations, or from such observations they expect Perry Mason-like exactness that frequently does not exist. These two books are accurate statements of how pathology helps in elucidating medical mysteries. Nevertheless, their emphases are so different that there is much to

Forensic Medicine

Abstract There has always been a relationship between medicine and law. Statutes governing the liability of the physician were included in the ancient code of Hammurabi and in Roman Law. The law makers always attached a real importance to medicine in connection with basic rules pertaining to paternity, life and death, and medical evidence. Minimal and maximal duration of pregnancy was fixed in Roman Law.

A new interpretation of §§ 6–8 of the Code of Hammurabi: A critical study of a group of Old Babylonian Laws. By I. Rapaport. pp. x, 44. Melbourne, privately printed, 1967.

A new interpretation of §§ 6–8 of the Code of Hammurabi: A critical study of a group of Old Babylonian Laws. By I. Rapaport. pp. x, 44. Melbourne, privately printed, 1967.

The Biblical Law against Loans on Interest

Previous articleNext article No AccessThe Biblical Law against Loans on InterestHillel GamoranHillel Gamoran Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Journal of Near Eastern Studies Volume 30, Number 2Apr., 1971 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/372105 Views: 16Total views on this site Citations: 7Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1971 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article: Restraint on Personal Choice, (Jan 2019): 175–200.https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316479780.006William Byrnes The Development of Charity: Jurisprudential Lessons from History, SSRN Electronic Journal (Jan 2013).https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2304517Johan Henning Perspectives on the Influence of the 'Societas Leonina' on the Law of Partnership, SSRN Electronic Journal (Jan 2013).https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2363891Albino Barrera Economic Compulsion and Christian Ethics, 10 (Sep 2009).https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511488313Thomas Moser The Old Testament Anti-Usury Laws Reconsidered: The Myth Of Tribal Brotherhood, SSRN Electronic Journal (Jan 1997).https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.41844Francesco L Galassi Buying a passport to heaven: Usury, restitution, and the merchants of medieval Genoa, Religion 22, no.44 (Oct 1992): 313–326.https://doi.org/10.1016/0048-721X(92)90042-3Arye L. Hillman MARKET CORRECTIONS, (): 307–404.https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511813788.006