PEDIATRICS Vol. 7 No. 2 February 1951, pp. 247-258
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THE PEDIATRICIAN AND THE PUBLIC

AN OPEN FORUM

JORGEN S. DICH 1

1 Adviser to the Danish Ministry of Social Affairs, Editor of Socialt Tidsskrift, Copenhagen, Professor of Public Finance and Public Welfare, University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark.

Editors: PAUL A. HARPER, M.D..

The subject of this talk concerns social medicine in the Scandinavian countries, not socialized medicine. The term socialized medicine has a political bias which is not in conformity with the conception of social medicine in Scandinavia. Every step in the development of the Scandinavian social medicine program has been adopted unanimously by all parties, irrespective of their attitudes toward socialism itself. Political parties have advocated liberalism and opposed socialism with the same ardor with which they have supported the expansion of social medicine. In Scandinavia, therefore, it is not necessary to advise us to "Keep politics out of this picture." Politics have always been omitted, even to the extent that a phrase corresponding to the American "socialized medicine" has never been used in Scandinavia. And if you were to try introducing it, it would not be understood.

What is social medicine? It can be defined as an organization of the medical services according to a certain conception of individual or human rights and public obligations in a modern society. In all countries it is accepted that there are some basic needs which everyone has the right to satisfy, irrespective of income. Protection of personal freedom belongs to this group; so does education of the children.


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