[Retrospections on medical ethics and deontology in Bulgaria].

Abstract

The paper reviews the emergence and the development of the medical ethics and deontology from the foundations of the Bulgarian state till today. With the foundation of the Bulgarian state / 7th century / the traditions and the culture of Thracians, Slavs and Proto-Bulgarians have mixed, the ethnic rules at the beginning being traditional, closely connected with the customs and the beliefs of the ethnical groups taking part in the ethnogenesis of the Bulgarian people. After the baptizing the Christian faith is in the basis of the moral virtues of the folk healers. After the Liberation from the Turkish yoke the major legal and medical norms are being worked out, the first professional and ethical rules obligatory for all doctors and dentists have been adopted, lecturing on medical deontology and taking a Hippocratic oath have been introduced. During the totalitarian period - immediately after the Second World War the medical ethics and deontology are underestimated to a great extent. A correction is made later on after the Moral Code of the doctor in the Peoples' Republic of Bulgaria, taking of the Hippocratic oath is being renewed, and etc. In the period of democracy fundamental legal and deontological sources are established which are the key means to carry out the health reform, incl. also the deontological aspects of health care. A Code of the professional ethics of the doctors and dentists is adopted, lecturing in medical ethics is introduced, lecturing in deontology is renewed, the Hippocratic oath is being taken, various conventions are being conducted, and etc.