As early as the Directiones ad rem Medi cam pertinentes Leibniz also saw clearly that the effective advancement of medicine required the support of the state and that the task of promoting the health of the population was one of the first duties of government. This conviction was repeated many years later in the Nouveaux Essais (1703-5): "Indeed, I believe that this aspect of public policy will become almost the chief concern of those who govern, second only to the concern for virtue; and that one of the greatest results of sound morality and sound politics will be our promoting an improved medical science." 108 In Leibniz's view, in order to discharge this duty, rulers should foster scientific collaboration between physicians, leading to the systematic collection of data and the establishment of effective therapies. Properly regulated state support would also help resolve endemic problems such as the persistent paucity of physicians and the corruption of health by avarice: since "human life is a sacred thing", Leibniz argued, "it should never be subject to the marketplace".109
108 Nouveaux Essais, book IV, Chap. 3, section 20 (AVI,6, 387). Trans. by Peter Remnant and Jonathan Bennett. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press, 1996.
109 Bedenken von Aufruchtung einer Akademie oder Societat in Deutschland, 1671 (A, IV, 552).
SOURCE: Maria Rosa Antognazza, Leibniz: An Intellectual Biography (2008), PAGE 130.
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