The western medical knowledges of the human anatomy and physiology including knowledges of central nervous system have probably been introduced into Korea by Prince Sohyon Seja in 1645. The authentic education for the western medicine at the governmental and private medical schools, however, originated from 1899 and the education of mental disease was included in curriculum of Tai-Han-uiwon, the governmental medical school before 1910. In 1913 the first department of psychiatry (Department of Mental Disease) was established at the Chongdokbu-uiwon, the clinic of the Japanese colonial government, the former Korean governmental hospital which has later developed to the Kyongs ong Imperial University Hospital. On the other hand, there was in Severance Hospital Medical College, one Australian missionary psychiatrist McLaren, who has served at Paton Memorial Hospital in Jinju, Korea from 1911, taught neurology and psychiatry from 1913 at Severance Hospital Medical College, established psychiatry ward in 1923 at the Hospital, conducted the ward in humanistic way until 1940. It was the German psychiatry which the Japanese psychiatrists have brought to the Korean peninsula and it remained as major trends of psychiatry in Korea during the Japanese occupation between 1911 and 1945. The academic levels of Kyongsong Imperial University in psychiatry as well as the quality of mental care seemed to be almost equivocal to the psychiatry in Japan. However, psychiatrists scope of social psychiatric issues and of the research interests seemed to be somewhat narrow. Due to the political discrimination for the Korean students, the Koreans had less opportunity for the promotion at the university than Japanese residents in Korea. In 1945, after the end of the Pacific War only about 11 Korean psychiatrists were left in Korea, who organized Korean Neuropsychiatric Association. The Department of Neuropsychiatry of Seoul National University (former Department of Neurology and Psychiatry, Kyongsong Imperial University) was the center for psychiatry training. The Korean War (1950-1953) enabled the interchanges between. Korean and American military psychiatrist, and motivated great change in Korean psychiatry from biologic oriented German descriptive psychiatry to the American dynamic psychobiological psychiatry. The German educational clinical systems were completely displaced by the American system, when internship and residency training system was conducted since 1958. However, there were always attempts to integrate old traditional Korean wisdoms into the modern psychiatry and to introduce European approaches and knowledges in psychiatry. With the rapid industrialization and economic development of the country since the late 1960s and the prevailing social defensive attitudes towards mentally ill patients of the leaders of the military regimes the increase of private asylums appeared where many chronically ill mental patients were kept without adequate treatment. The reform of asylums in the mid 1980s was gradually proceeded by the government leading consequently to the increase of huge mental hospitals in the land. With the democratization of the political situation as well as the social welfare policy of the government in the 1990s and with the steady stimulation elicited by some NGOs Mental Health Act was enacted in 1995 and the community mental health centers were increasingly set up in several districts. In concern with research activities in psychiatry remarkable development in social cultural as well as biological fields are recognized especially since in the 1970s academic societies for the subspecialities of psychiatry have been organized which cover the various schools of psychotherapy, social psychiatry as well as many subspecialities of biological psychiatry. The number of training hospitals have been increased as the result, the number of psychiatry specialists was increased from 93 in 1956 to 1593 in 1999. KNPA (Korean Neuropsychiatric Association) internal and international activities has been expanded. Question is however, the quality of services and the quality of academic achievement. Gradually, the voice was raised to focus more on the quality of research and training activities.
English Abstract ; History of Medicine, 20th Cent. ; History of Medicine, 20th Cent. ; History of Medicine, 21st Cent. ; Korea ; Psychiatry/*history ; Western World/*history

Medicine is not only a science but also belongs to the humanities. Being a science means that it has the objective and universally applicable methodology. Science, because of its stringent methodologies (determinism, reductionism and mechanism), cannot grasp the fruitful context of human life. Although the humanities can give us flexible wisdom of life, nobody can insist on its objective and universal applicability. We have two different cultures in medicine - those of science and the humanities. If you examine the ways how people choose health services, however, you can find that they do not have any conflict between the two cultures. They simply do not care whether the service they are going to buy is orthodox or alternative if they have high expectations of it. The two cultures already have been resolved in their lives. I suggest that we should learn from ordinary people and not from logics of science and philosophy to resolve the conflict between the two cultures. We can probably begin with the fact that the ultimate goal of medicine is to serve the people and not to find abstract truth in the material body.
*Cultural Diversity ; English Abstract ; History of Medicine, 20th Cent. ; History of Medicine, 21st Cent. ; Humanities/*history ; Philosophy, Medical/*history ; Science/*history

This article deals with the emergence of the codes of medical ethics and their change in Korean history. The modernized medical codes or covenants by the group of medical doctors has been made from the mid-twentieth century, although Korea has a long tradition of medical ethics, so called the Confucian medical ethics, Insul or Uido which were taken on very strong paternalistic characters. The history of the codes of medical ethics in contemporary Korea showed several revisions in 1961, 1965, 1979, and 1997 since the first establishment in 1955. Changes of political circumstances, the cultural level of the people, medical care system, and medical power leaded to the revisions. Throughout the revisions the codes or covenants of medical ethics in Korea has changed from simple translations of the codes by the World Medical Association and the American Medical Association to the reflexes of domestic medical situations; from the ones based on paternalistic doctor-patient relationship to more democratic ones; from the ones that only medical ethics were expressed to the ones that bioethics was expressed too.
English Abstract ; Ethics, Medical/*history ; History of Medicine, 20th Cent. ; History of Medicine, 21st Cent. ; History of Medicine, Ancient ; History of Medicine, Early Modern ; History of Medicine, Medieval ; History of Medicine, Modern ; Korea

Hospitals are confronting in the transforming or reforming period to cope with the rapid social and environmental changes worldwide. By the researches in the history of Korean health, we could understand the context of the introduction of Western medicine and institutions to Korea. However there have been few studies on the historical review of hospitals in relations to their roles in the modern medicineThis article is to review the issues around the rise of modern hospitals in Korean history of health affairs. The introduction of Western medicine to Korea was on the road with the establishment of Kwanghyewon, the Royal Hospital, which was possible due to favorable conditions under the Korean socio-political background for the emerging and accepting the entirely new medical system. And also the emergence of modern hospitals had transformed the Korean traditional health system from the fundamentals through the corruption of the old dynasty to nowadays. Most national health affairs including medical services, prevention of diseases, health promotion, and the training of health personnels have performed along with the development of modern hospitals, which have the roots in the period after the end of 19th century. Thus the Korean history of health care around the end of 19th century and the beginning of 20th century could be defined as the period of the emergence of modern hospitals. The hospitals also have played core roles in establishing the Korean modern health system and culture. Compared to the cases of Western countries, Korean modern hospitals were emerged with the exogenous factors in the turbulence of political and cultural changes in the world system. In sum, Korean modern hospitals in the period of late Chosun have the great meaning in that they are the beginning point to shape the current Korean health care system and the driving forces or carriers of this new system.
English Abstract ; History of Medicine, 19th Cent. ; History of Medicine, 20th Cent. ; History of Medicine, 21st Cent. ; Hospitals/*history ; Korea ; *Medicine ; Western World/*history

Since prehistorical era, the human has desired to control reproduction artificially. However, abortion, one of the productive methods has been prohibited to a certain degree by law in some countries, but the operation of abortion has been done in practice. Also, controversial arguments on legitimacy of abortion have been raised. In Korea, physicians operates abortions more than 2 million times each year. In spite of serious social problems, arguments on abortion have not been common yet. The efforts to find a good solution for abortion have not been very sufficient. Therefore, this study is to investigate the concerns for the conditions of abortion since 1945 (this year is the independent one from Japan's government) through a historical perspective and to suggest the efficient direction in policy. Since 1945, many women have had no choice but abortion for their basic life. The Korean government of legislated the Crimes of Abortion in Criminal Law in 1953. However, the number of women who underwent abortion increased since 1962 due to the governmental Family Planning Policy. In addition, the Mother and Fatherless Child Health Act was enacted in 1973 that tolerated abortion to some extent. The disparate treatment of abortion between Criminal Law and the governmental policy fueled the confusion to potentially pregnant women. The first reason why Korean women choose abortion is wrongful pregnancy. Compared to other countries, in Korea, abortion were operated for sex selection. To conclude, it is important to be implement positive sex education, proper contraception education by government and social publicization of arguments on abortion.
Abortion, Induced/*history ; English Abstract ; History of Medicine, 20th Cent. ; History of Medicine, 21st Cent. ; Korea ; Public Health Practice/*history

Many approaches are being used for exposure of the anterior cranial base regions, ranging from extracranial to intracranial, such as transsphenoidal approach. This intracranial approach, developed in the beginning of the twentieth century, has recently become one of the most commonly used approaches after many incremental improvements. This thesis aims at examining the development of the approach and those who contributed to this procedure. The author also contemplate problems which may occur in the historical analysis. From the nineteenth century, advances have been made in anesthesiology, sterilization, cerebral localization and knowledge of anatomical and physiologic aspects of the skull base. The development of new knowledge and technique has helped to overcome obstacles, making surgery of the skull base through extracranial approach both technically feasible and therapeutically effective. To avoid serious postoperative complications after the extracranial approach, transsphenoidal approach had been developed in the beginning of the twentieth century. Transsphenoidal approach had been widely used right after its introduction. But it had not been used popularly since late 1920s in the United States. In early 1960s, this technique, spread from Europe, has regained popularity and become one of the most widely-used approaches. In the history of the transsphenoidal approach, it has been thought that the effort of Harvey Cushing and Oskar Hirsch, the endeavor of Cushing's scholars, several new attempts of otolaryngologists played an important role. However, comparing to great appreciation of neurosurgeons, especially Harvey Cushing on their significant contribution to the further development of this technique, the role of other pioneering doctors have been underestimated in previous historical studies on the transsphenoidal approach. It was because dynamical relationships among several specialties had influence on the historical analysis. This cases shows that historical analysis is influenced not only by past figures but also by current situations.
English Abstract ; History of Medicine, 19th Cent. ; History of Medicine, 20th Cent. ; History of Medicine, 21st Cent. ; Neurosurgery/*history ; Skull Base/*surgery ; Surgery/*history

The National Institute of Health(NIH) under the Ministry of Health and Welfare of the Korean Government was established in 1963 integrating four institutes; National Institute of Health National Chemical Laboratories National Laboratory of Herb Medicine and National Institute of Public Health Training The root however goes down to the Bacteriology Laboratory opened in 1912 with the function for microbiological testing and pox vaccine development which was absorbed into the former National Institute of Health in 1948 when the government of the Republic of Korea was inaugurated. The Institute opened a satellite office the Masan Branch in 1977 and was further expanded adding the Divisions of AIDS and Biotechnology in 1988. In 1996 as a part of restructuring the Government organizations Korea Food and Drug Administration(KFDA) was founded by expanding the Toxicology Research Institute to which all the functions of testing and certifying foods and drugs were transferred Simultaneously a new department the Department of Biomedical science was organized which currently consists of five divisions; the Divisions of Cancer Research Degenerative Diseases Cardiovascular Diseases Metabolic Diseases and Genetic Diseases. In 1999 in order to provide a rapid and effective disease control the Department of Communicable Diseases was newly founded merging the Division of Disease Control and Prevention from the Ministry of Health and Welfare. With these steady and significant changes the NIH together with the training of health manpower has become the national organization for research prevention and control of various diseases of public health importance in Korea.
Academies and Institutes/*history ; English Abstract ; Government Agencies/*history ; History of Medicine, 20th Cent. ; History of Medicine, 21st Cent. ; Korea ; Public Health Administration/*history ; Research/*history

Modern hospital in Korea was the space of competition and compromise among different forces such as the state power and social forces, imperialism and nationalism, and the traditional and the modern medicine. Hospital in the Japanese colonialism was the object of control for establishing the colonial medical system. Japanese colonialism controlled not only the public hospital but also the private hospital which had to possess more than 10 infectious beds in the isolation building by the Controlling Regulation of Private Hospital. In fact, the private hospital had to possess more than 20 beds for hospital management. As a result, its regulation prevented the independent development of the private hospital. But because the public hospital could not accommodate many graduates of medical school, most of them had to serve as a practitioner. Although some practitioners had more than 20 beds in their clinics, they were not officially included in the imperial medicine. By concentrating on the trend of the number of bed in the hospital, this paper differs from most previous studies of the system of hospital, which have argued that the system of hospital was converted the public-centered hospital system under the colonial medical system into the private-centered hospital system under the U. S. medical system after the Liberation in 1945. After Liberation, medical reformers discussed arranging the public and the private hospital. Lee Yong-seol, who was a Health-Welfare minister, disagreed the introduction of the system of state medicine. Worrying about the flooding of practitioners, he did not want to intervene the construction of hospital by state power. Because the private hospital run short of the medical leadership and the fundamental basis, the state still controlled the main disease in the public health and the prevention of epidemics. This means the state also played important part in the general medical examination and treatment. The outbreak of Korean War in 1950 reinforced the role of state. The leadership of the public hospital verified the trend of the quantity of bed. The number of bed in the private hospital exceeded that of the public hospital in 1966 for the first time. Furthermore, the number of bed in the public hospital doubled that of private hospital in the new general hospital of 1950s. This means the system of hospital after the Liberation was not converted the public-centered hospital system into the private-centered hospital system, but maintained the public-centered hospital system until 1960s.
Colonialism/*history ; English Abstract ; History of Medicine, 20th Cent. ; History of Medicine, 21st Cent. ; Hospitals, Public/*history ; Hospitals, Voluntary/*history ; Japan ; Korea ; United States ; War/*history

When we think about ethics or morals, we tend to look at them from the viewpoint of here and now. Actual implications of then and there, however, could be different. That is why we should study history of bio-ethics along with philosophy involved in it. Bio-medical ethics is situated in spatial and cultural dimension as well as temporal and historical. Dentistry has been in a peculiar situation in that although it has evolved from the same root as medicine it has become separate discipline. Ethical implications of dentistry, however, share the historical and philosophical background with its mother discipline, i.e., medicine, surgery, barber-surgery and even smithery. This paper tries to grasp the main ideas of bio-medical ethics from the ancient Greek and China and picks up three of them as guiding principles, i.e., deontology and teleology from the west and self-cultivation from the east, It also tracks down the contents of modern biomedical ethics; from etiquette to ethics, from morals to contract (ethics of autonomy), and ethics of professional responsibility. Finally it reviews and analyzes two different traditions of dental professional regulation from the legal and ethical point of view (U.S. and Europe), and proposes a new direction for the construction of dental ethics in Korea.
Bioethics/*history ; Dentistry/*ethics ; English Abstract ; History of Medicine, 21st Cent. ; History of Medicine, Ancient ; History of Medicine, Early Modern ; History of Medicine, Medieval ; History of Medicine, Modern ; Korea ; Philosophy, Medical/*history

Introduction of western surgery into Korea is closely related to the introduction of western medicine itself into Korea. In December 4th, 1884 Allen, who came to Korea as a Missionary Doctor of North Presbyterian Church of America, had a chance to treat a patient with severe stab wounds. The patient was a nephew of Queen Myungsung. The paitent, Min Young Ik was recovered completely. These happenings led to the establishment of 'Kwangheywon (renamed to Jejoongwon 2 weeks later)', the first westernized hospital in Korea. With the great financial aids from Severance family, Jejoongwon developed into Severance Hospital and Medical School in 1904, and greatly contributed to education of Surgery for Korean medical students. Meanwhile Korean Government established the Medical School and Hospital to train Korean Doctors in 1899. But the original intentions became to be impaired by occupation of Korea by Japan in 1910. As a colony, many Japanese Surgeons came to Korea as a professors of Kyungsung Medical College, and gave only few chances for Koreans to became a professor. On the contrary, several surgeons became professors in the private, missionary 'Severance Union Medical College'. After liberation from Japanese occupation in 1945, American medical system was introduced into Korea, and many surgeons had a chance to be trained in America. There were great advancements in the field of surgery, especially of neurosurgery, during a tragic Korean War. With the restoration of economy after 1960s, surgery in Korea continued to develop toward an independent and consolidated fields of medicine.
Colonialism/*history ; English Abstract ; History of Medicine, 19th Cent. ; History of Medicine, 20th Cent. ; History of Medicine, 21st Cent. ; Japan ; Korea ; Missions and Missionaries/*history ; Surgery/*history ; United States ; War/*history ; Western World/*history