Benjamin Rush's Medical Freedom Vision For The Constitution

Benjamin Rush, a Founding Father of the United States, was a physician, writer, educator, and humanitarian. He was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and played a role in the Continental Congress. Rush advocated for medical freedom in the Constitution, believing that Americans should have the right to medical freedom enshrined in their founding document. He is quoted as saying, Unless we put Medical Freedom into the Constitution, the time will come when medicine will organize into an undercover dictatorship. Rush also contributed significantly to the fields of psychiatry, addiction medicine, and public education.

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The medical libertarian quote about medical freedom in the Constitution

Benjamin Rush was a Founding Father of the United States, a physician, writer, educator, and humanitarian. He was a strong advocate for medical freedom and believed that it should be enshrined in the Constitution, just as religious freedom was. In his own words:

> "Unless we put medical freedom into the Constitution, the time will come when medicine will organize into an undercover dictatorship... To restrict the art of healing to one class of men and deny equal privileges to others will constitute the Bastille of medical science. All such laws are un-American and despotic and have no place in a republic... The Constitution of this republic should make special privilege for medical freedom as well as religious freedom."

While this quote is popularly attributed to Rush, it may be a misattribution. Nonetheless, it captures the essence of his beliefs about medical freedom. Rush was ahead of his time in his approach to medicine and mental health, advocating for the treatment of mental illness and the development of veterinary science. He also pioneered the concept of addiction and believed in humane mental institutions.

Rush was also a social activist and abolitionist, crusading for the abolition of slavery, the end of capital punishment, and the advancement of women's rights. He was a prominent figure in the American Enlightenment and served in the Continental Congress alongside Thomas Jefferson, with whom he shared a long friendship.

Rush's advocacy for humane mental institutions

Dr Benjamin Rush, born in 1745 in Byberry, Pennsylvania, was a Founding Father of the United States and a signatory to the US Declaration of Independence. He was a physician, educator, writer, humanitarian, abolitionist, and social activist. He was also a prominent advocate for the abolition of slavery and for scientific education for the masses, including women.

Benjamin Rush is considered the "Father of American Psychiatry". He was far ahead of his time in the treatment of mental illness, publishing the first textbook on the subject in the United States, "Medical Inquiries and Observations upon the Diseases of the Mind" in 1812. He was also an advocate of insane asylums, believing that with proper treatment, mental diseases could be cured. Rush believed that people with mental illnesses were people with an illness, rather than inhuman animals. He also championed the idea of "partial madness", or that people could have varying degrees of mental illness.

Rush advocated for more humane mental institutions. After seeing patients with mental illnesses in appalling conditions at Pennsylvania Hospital, Rush led a successful campaign in 1792 for the state to build a separate mental ward where patients could be kept in more humane conditions. He believed that many mental illnesses were caused by disruptions of blood circulation or by sensory overload, and treated them with devices meant to improve circulation to the brain, such as a centrifugal spinning board, and inactivity/sensory deprivation via a restraining chair with a sensory-deprivation head enclosure ("tranquilizer chair").

Rush's approach to the treatment of mental illness prepared the way for later medical research. His study of mental disorder made him one of the founders of American psychiatry. He also pioneered the therapeutic approach to addiction. Before his work, drunkenness was viewed as being sinful and a matter of choice. Rush introduced the idea that the alcoholic loses control over himself and identified the properties of alcohol, rather than the alcoholic's choice, as the causal agent.

His belief in the need for public medical clinics to treat the poor

Benjamin Rush was a physician, writer, educator, humanitarian, American revolutionary, Founding Father of the United States, and civic leader in Philadelphia. He was a strong advocate for medical freedom and believed that the Constitution should make special provisions for it, just as it did for religious freedom.

Rush was a prominent figure in Philadelphia, where he practised medicine extensively among the poor. He was also a social activist and abolitionist, and he opposed slavery and capital punishment. Rush believed that Americans should cherish the right to medical freedom. He was a founding member of the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons, which influenced the construction of the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia.

Rush's belief in the need for public medical clinics to treat the poor was evident from the beginning of his career. When he returned to Philadelphia from Europe in 1769, he dedicated much of his time to caring for the poor, often for little to no remuneration. He also advocated for scientific education for the masses, including women, and believed that Americans should understand the principles upon which the United States was founded to enable them to institute necessary reforms.

Rush's home became a clinic and a sort of pharmaceutical factory staffed by his students and apprentices. During the 1793 Philadelphia yellow fever epidemic, Rush treated up to 120 patients per day, and his treatments included bleeding, calomel, and other early medicinal techniques. While these treatments were often ineffective and sometimes harmful, Rush believed that it was better to do something rather than nothing. He also promoted public health by advocating for a clean environment and stressing the importance of personal and military hygiene.

Rush's belief in the need for public medical clinics to treat the poor was also reflected in his approach to mental illness. He was considered the Father of American Psychiatry and published the first textbook on the subject in the United States, "Medical Inquiries and Observations upon the Diseases of the Mind" in 1812. He advocated for more humane mental institutions and believed that people with mental illnesses were people with an illness, not inhuman animals. He also introduced the concept of partial madness, suggesting that people could have varying degrees of mental illness.

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His role as a founding member of the Philadelphia Prison Society

Benjamin Rush was a founding member of the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons, now known as the Philadelphia Prison Society. The organisation was the world's first to be devoted to prison reform.

Rush was a strong opponent of the death penalty and inhumane prison conditions, which he believed were stark and unsanitary. He also campaigned against the death penalty for any crime other than first-degree murder. In 1790, Rush helped establish the Walnut Street Prison, Pennsylvania's first state penitentiary. He believed that long-term imprisonment and the denial of liberty were the most humane but severe forms of punishment.

Rush's views on criminal reform were ahead of his time. He believed that people with mental illnesses were unwell and not inhuman, as was previously thought. He also believed in the concept of ""partial madness", or the idea that people could have varying degrees of mental illness. Rush advocated for more humane mental institutions and believed that mental illnesses could be cured with proper treatment. He also pioneered the therapeutic approach to addiction, viewing it as a disease rather than a choice.

Rush was also a social activist and abolitionist. He was a founding member of the Free African Society and the biracial Pennsylvania Abolition Society, both established in 1787. He also did pro bono work for Philadelphia's Black community.

Rush's views on the abolition of slavery and ending capital punishment

Benjamin Rush was a prominent abolitionist and a vocal opponent of racial prejudice against free Blacks. He was considered the leading abolitionist among the Founding Fathers and was the author of one of the first major anti-slavery pamphlets, "An Address to the Inhabitants of the British Settlements in America, Upon Slave-Keeping", published in 1773. In it, he addressed not only the legal and humanitarian issues surrounding slavery but also its medical and psychological impact.

Rush's views on abolitionism were shaped by his deep-seated faith in the power of rationality to dispel injustice and undeserved privilege. He believed that all human beings were naturally disposed towards freedom and that African Americans were just as capable of shouldering the responsibilities of freedom as their European counterparts. He wrote,

> "I need say hardly anything in favor of the intellects of the Negroes, or of their capacities for virtue and happiness, although they have been supposed by some to be inferior to those of the inhabitants of Europe. The accounts which travelers give of their ingenuity, humanity, and strong attachments to their parents, relations, friends, and country, show us that they are equal to the Europeans."

Rush was also a member of the Pennsylvania Abolitionist Society, serving as its secretary and later its president. He was an influential advocate for Philadelphia's African American community, helping to establish the city's first Black church.

In addition to his abolitionist beliefs, Rush was also against capital punishment. He believed that public punishments, such as putting a person on display in stocks, were counterproductive. Instead, he proposed private confinement, labor, solitude, and religious instruction for criminals. His outspoken opposition to the death penalty influenced the Pennsylvania legislature's decision to abolish capital punishment for all crimes except first-degree murder.

Rush authored a treatise on the subject of capital punishment in 1792, in which he made several arguments against the practice:

• Every man possesses absolute power over his liberty and property but not over his life. Therefore, to take away life as punishment is a violation of the first political compact.
• The punishment of murder by death is contrary to reason and the order and happiness of society.
• The punishment of murder by death is contrary to divine revelation.
• The punishment of murder by death multiplies murders due to the difficulty of convicting persons guilty of it.
• The punishment of murder by death checks the operations of universal justice by preventing the punishment of every species of murder.

Rush's views on both abolition and capital punishment were informed by his belief in the importance of humane treatment and the potential for reform, reflecting his ultimate faith in human progress.

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