In 1793, Philadelphia, the capital of the United States as well as the country’s most populated city, was ravaged by yellow fever. The lack of public health policies at this time intensified the disease into a full on epidemic. According to Jan Golinski in her article Debating The Atmospheric Constitution: Yellow Fever And The American Climate, the epidemic caused the American people to consider why the virus was able to spread so easily. Citizens eventually came to blame the outbreak on how unsanitary the urban area of Philadelphia was at the time. All American cities at this time were unhealthy to live in due to poor drainage systems and ventilation, overcrowding, and a lack of sun exposure. All these factors led to the yellow fever virus being able to spread with ease in cities like Philadelphia. Ultimately, the public outcry led to the formation urban improvements projects in the early …show more content…
Benjamin Rush's Republican Medicine, the Bilious Remitting Yellow-fever Epidemic of 1793, and the Non-origin of the Law of Informed Consent. Perhaps the most famous physician during this outbreak was Benjamin Rush. Rush used a range of practiced in an attempt to cure yellow fever, including purging and bloodletting. Clark, however, claims Rush’s efforts failed completely. Not only did Rush fail to cure his patients, he also violated their rights. Today, informed consent (the act of a patient giving a medical professional explicit permission to perform treatment on them) is crucial in any medical practice. 1793, however, was a different time. Rush performed medical care on his patients that actually proved to be detrimental to their health. In fact, he often would not even tell his patients exactly what treatments he was using on them or how the remedy would help ease their illness. A lack of laws surrounding informed consent made it extremely dangerous to be a patient in