The following is a remarkable illustration of the advance in our
conception of social obligations to unfortunates:
The president (of the Chicago Medical Society, December 13, 1867)
“appointed a committee to consider the wisdom of the members of the
society signing a petition requesting that the physician who was then
imprisoned (Dr. Mudd) for caring for the wounds of Lincoln’s assassin
should be released. The members of the society were of various
opinions in regard to the ethical position of the unfortunate
doctor.”[2]
Footnote 2:
Chicago Medical Recorder, April, 1913, p. 238.