Illness And Marriage In The First Years Of The Republic: An Evaluation Of Besim Ömer Akalın’s Work Titled “Fen Ve İzdivac” In Terms Of Medical History

Abstract

Besim Ömer Akalın is one of the most important figures in the history of medicine and he made remarkable initiatives with his ideas on the direction of health policies, especially in the last period of the Ottoman Empire and the first years of the Republic of Türkiye. He wrote many books and articles on the field of health. He also wrote some books in series.

Document analysis method, one of the qualitative research methods, was used in our study. Within the scope of our study, the translation of Besim Ömer Akalın’s “Fen ve İzdivac Evlenebilecekler ve Evlenemeyecekler” (Science and Marriage Those who can and cannot Marry) was made from Ottoman Turkish. The book is one of the books he wrote in a series that basically concerns population policy and expresses the widespread understanding of the period. This book contains his general ideas about the “improvement” of the human generation and the system he built on this “improvement” and his suggestions. The topic mainly deals with infectious diseases that can affect marriage, age compatibility, how to choose a mate and issues that can positively or negatively affect the future of the population.

The book has not been discussed and comprehensively evaluated before. In this context, the book is discussed in terms of the population policies of the day, contagious diseases and non-contagious diseases, the impact of people’s mental states on the institution of marriage, and the eugenics debates of the period.

The study aims to question the scientific basis on which Besim Ömer Akalın tried to ground his views in his book in the conditions of the period in which he published his work, to compare them with the views of other writers of the period on similar issues and to reveal the general orientation of the period. In addition, the validity of some of Besim Ömer Akalın’s views expressed from today’s scientific point of view is also discussed and it is aimed to reveal whether his discourses have gone beyond his time.

There is no study that would require the approval of the Ethical Committee in this article.

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