CYIL vol. 14 (2023)

CYIL 14 (2023) NEW METHODS IN MEDICINE: CZECH PRACTICE IN LIGHT OF THE CONVENTION… On the author: JUDr. Mgr. Martin Šolc, Ph.D. is a lecturer at the Department of Medical Law and the Department of Civil Law at the Faculty of Law, Charles University. He specializes in medical law and ethics with an emphasis on medical research. solcma@prf. cuni.cz. Introduction Throughout history, medical professionals and healers of many kinds have been helping their patients cope with their physical and mental suffering and sometimes cure their illnesses. Nevertheless, from the historical perspective, it was only relatively recently that the range of curable health problems started to expand. With the lives and health of patients at stake, it is only logical that medicine has always been a rather traditional endeavour with a preference for well-established methods. At the beginning of the twentieth century, a new trend in medicine took over: the old yet not profoundly understood methods were held back and the course of illnesses were monitored in order to achieve a much deeper understanding in the future. It did not take very long for this strategy to start to pay off. 2 Many health conditions that for millennia had been close to the sentence of death – diabetes, 3 sepsis, 4 or tuberculosis, 5 to name just a few – became treatable or, at worst, chronic diseases. The fast and awe-inspiring development of medicine, bringing about uncounted previously unimagined successes in a few decades, was mostly enabled by the use of the scientific method. 6 This course of history led medicine to triumphalist heights, which in turn had to be mitigated after several errors caused immense suffering, be it for severely handicapped children whose mothers took the infamous drug thalidomide during pregnancy, 7 the victims of once glorified practice of lobotomy, 8 or unknowing patients endangered in highly unethical research projects. 9 As an answer, the medical and legal community came up with a combination of scientific, legal, and ethical tools that shape the landscape of medical research today. 2 See MUKHERJEE, S . The Laws of Medicine. Field Notes from an Uncertain Science. Simon & Schuster, New York 2015, pp. 12–16. 3 See BUSE, J. B., DAVIES, M. J., FRIER, B. M., PHILIS-TSIMIKAS, A. 100 years on: the impact of the discovery of insulin on clinical outcomes. BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care. (2021, Vol. 9, No. 1), pp. 1–2. doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjdrc-2021-002373. 4 Once almost always leading to death, sepsis has still mortality around 20 % globally. See Surviving Sepsis. Taming a Deadly Immune Response. NIH News in Health. (August 2014.) accessed 21 August 2023. 5 See DANIEL, T. M. The history of tuberculosis. Respiratory Medicine. (2006, Vol. 100, No. 11), p. 1866. 6 Even though the term evidence-based medicine (EBM) is relatively very recent, dating back to the 1990s, its roots can be found much further in history. See STRAUS, S. E., GLASZIOU, P., RICHARDSON, W. S., HAYNES, R. B. Evidence-Based Medicine. How to Practice and Teach EBM. 5 th ed. Elsevier, 2019, pp. 1–2. 7 See FINTEL, B., SAMARAS, A. T., CARIAS, E. The Thalidomide Tragedy: Lessons for Drug Safety and Regulation. HELIX. (28 July 2009.) accessed 21 August 2023. 8 See CARUSO, J. P., SHEEHAN, J. P. Psychosurgery, ethics, and media: a history of Walter Freeman and the lobotomy. Neurosurgical Focus. (2017, Vol. 43, No. 3, paper no. 6). doi: https://doi.org/10.3171/2017.6.FOCUS17257. 9 See the famous Henry Beecher’s paper disclosing several unethical research projects carried out in contemporary US hospitals: BEECHER, H. K. Ethics and Clinical Research. The New England Journal of Medicine. (1966, Vol. 74, No. 24), pp. 1354–1360.

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