6 / 238
6
29
th
CONGRESS OF THE ESPU
He was very innovative and made many contributions to urology. Especially significant for our field
of interest are:
• Balloon catheter
1921–37
• Ipsilateral uretero-ureterostomy 1928
• Y-V Pyeloplasty
1937
• Artificial sphincter
1946
His life and accomplishments will be discussed in this presentation.
18:13–18:28
HS-5 (LO)
INFORMED CONSENT FOR A PEDIATRIC UROLOGICAL
PROCEDURE IN 16
TH
CENTURY
Nil TEKGUL
1
and Serdar TEKGUL
2
1) Harvard University, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Cambridge, USA - 2) Hacettepe University, Department
of Urology, Div of Pediatric Urology, Sihhiye Ankara, TURKEY
ABSTRACT
The script presented dating October 27
th
1575 is retrieved from judicial court registers of Bursa,
Turkey. As evidenced from this case, the father of a boy officially declared at the court, in front of the
witnesses and the “kadi” (judge), that he had given his consent to Huseyin bin Mehmed (a skillful
surgeon in his field) to do a medical intervention to his son who is suffering from hard and painful
mass in the groin (most probably a testicular torsion or strangulated hernia). He also confirmed that
if anything happens to his son during and after surgery he would not sue the surgeon or hold him
responsible.
Similar approvals of the patients given to their physicians regarding medical interventions are re-
corded in Ottoman judicial court registers from early 16
th
century. Such cases of official approval are
usually termed as “informed consents” (riza senedi) by modern scholars due to their resemblance
to today’s concept of “informed consent” for basically two reasons. Under Islamic criminal law,
provisions regarding offences against persons, i.e. homicide and wounding, belonged to the field
of private law; hence, the victim or the victim’s heirs may demand retaliation (qisas) if the killing or
wounding was intentional or financial compensation (diyet- blood money). Therefore, the surgeons
demanded an official consent from their patients to secure themselves from any financial liabilities.
This paper, by utilizing Ottoman judicial court records with a specific focus on pediatric urological
cases, examines the cases of medical interventions in which the patients give their consent to
their surgeons. It aims to shed light on the motivations of the patients in giving their consent and
furthermore understand medico-legal practices during the Ottoman pre-modern era.