The Legal Regulation of the Medical Profession in Ancient Iraq within the Code of Hammurabi

Abstract

The ancient Iraqi civilization, throughout its historical periods, specialized in the natural tendency to legalization until it became a distinctive sign of its intellectual approach, and was characterized by its maturity and treatment of many issues that were prevalent at the time, including the medical profession, which was one of the most prestigious professions in the ancient Iraqi society. As doctors represented a professional organization that included many medical specialties  and as a result of the importance of this profession, the legislator Hammurabi allocates part of his legislation to it within the legal articles of the medical profession, which is the first law in ancient Iraq regulating the medical profession and clarifying the doctor-patient relationship, by determining the fees of treatment and surgical operations and the consequences of the doctor from the penal penalties in the event of his negligence in his work according to the patient’s belonging to his social class.  The science of medicine developed in ancient Iraq in the second millennium BC and the best evidence for this is what came in Hammurabi’s code, which distinguished between the doctor, surgeon and veterinarian and determined the wages of each of them. Hence the problem of the research is as follows: How did Hammurabi's code regulate the doctor's wages and what was the standard adopted in that? What was the penal responsibility towards a doctor who was negligent in his profession?