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ABSTRACT:This article examines a heretofore unexplored facet of John Locke's philosophy. Locke was a medical doctor and he also wrote about medical issues that are controversial today. Despite this, Locke's medical ethics has yet to be studied. An analysis of Locke's education and his teachers and colleagues in the medical profession, of the 17th century Hippocratic Oath, and of the reaction to the last recorded outbreak of the bubonic plague in London, shines some light on the subject of Locke's medical ethics. The study of Locke's medical ethics confirms that he was a deontologist who opposed all suicide and abortion through much of pregnancy.
The works of John Locke remain widely read in the 21st century. As we enter into the tercentennial of Locke's death, we can safely conclude that his works have deserved their three centuries of fame and import.1 The existence of modern democracy itself is largely a testament to the success of Locke's theories. With this background in mind, it is puzzling that a very important part of Locke's life and thought has received almost no in depth analysis. That aspect of Locke's life is his medical practice.2 It is even more puzzling in light of the fact that over the last few decades the study of bioethics has been on the rise in America.3 John Locke opposed suicide and defended liberty and autonomy on philosophical grounds.4 John Locke practiced medicine. That Locke's medical ethics is worth studying seems clear from these facts. And yet, several of America's most prominent bioethicists have ignored John Locke's medical practice in their writings.5 As a result, we may have an incomplete view of Locke to this very day.
This article is intended as the first step towards remedying this problem. Although a review of Locke's medical journals, his letters to fellow doctors and his letters to friends in general, do not disclose much that obviously deals with today's questions in medical ethics,6 that does not mean that no indirect evidence of Locke's views on these subjects can be gleaned from his medical writings. In fact, an analysis of the medical community-including its view of the Hippocratic Oath-that Locke entered upon his graduation from Oxford with a medical degree in 1675, and of the reaction...