David Kahn, in Harvard Mazazine (Mar.-Apr. 1978), Wadsworth House, Cambridge, Mass. 02138.
The concept of physician accountability dates back to 2000 B.c., but only since the 1930s has the incidence of medical-malpractice litigation begun to resemble a patients' revolt. The current rash of malpractice suits (some 16,000 claims are pending against U.S. physicians) may stem in part from some ancient religious assumptions about the role of physicians and the practice of medicine, says Kahn, a Stoughton,...