HOMOSEXUAL: ETHICAL ISSUES

The practice of medicine involves a body of knowledge, a body of practitioners, and the people ho seek
healthcare services. Homosexuality is of moral interest to medicine in all these areas. The term
homosexuality was coined in 1869by Karoly Maria Benkert to refer to same-sex erotism and it has
prevailed over other proposed names, such as sodomy, contrary sexual feeling, inversion, and Uranism
(Kennedy). To be sure, same-sex eroticism predates contemporary terminology and has a long – if
contested – cultural history. The relationship between medicine and homosexuality has reflected both
cultural prejudices as well as scientific advances.

History and Prevalence

In ancient Greek and Roman cultures, same-sex interactions were part of he cultural background,
notwithstanding critics in those very society.

Educational relations among the Greek aristocracy took the form of mentoring relationships between
older men and adolescent males, and schools for women sometimes followed this model (Marrou). It is
not surprising that Intimate mentoring relationships would sometimes become sexual. Roman
civilization also had its share of same-sex eroticism, with some notorious emperors having harems of
male lovers at their disposal (Gibbon). The Emperor Hadrian was so distraught after the death of a
beloved youth, Antinous, that he defied him, erected statutes of him through the empire, and founded a
city in his name (Birley).

In later times, the social and religious circumstances of medieval Europe worked to limit the visibility of
homosexuality, but subcultures and literary and artistic expressions of same-sex love were far unknown
even in ecclesiastical communities (Boswell). Homosexuality has expressed itself elsewhere around the
globe, as well, including Africa, China, and among Native American cultures.

In ways without precedent in human history, a same-sex culture has emerged in the large contemporary
cities of the developed world and, it is a social force in communication, entertainment, business and
commerce, and politics. Men and women who acknowledge their homosexuality hold prominent and
influential social positions, as do men and women who chose not to disclose their homosexuality