Meinrad Schär

Meinrad Schär

Meinrad Schär (born July 15, 1921 in Busswil near Melchnau , Canton Bern ; † November 9, 2007 in Zurich ) was a Swiss doctor and politician ( LdU ). He was the first social and preventive medicine specialist in Switzerland.

Life

Schär grew up in Basel and initially completed an apprenticeship as a laboratory assistant at Geigy . On the second chance he obtained the Matura and studied medicine at the University of Basel , where he in 1952 he with a thesis on the mechanisms of cardiac arrhythmias by adrenaline Dr. med. received his doctorate . By type at the Basel Tropical Institute , he graduated in 1955 as the first Swiss with a grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation a Master of Public Health at the University of California, San Francisco .

From 1956 he worked in what was then the Federal Health Office , from 1960 to 1962 as Vice Director. During this time, together with the head of the Federal Department of Home Affairs, Federal Councilor Hans-Peter Tschudi, he developed a decree that introduced social and preventive medicine as a new examination subject for the state medical examination.

In 1962 he received a reputation as a full professor at the newly created Department of Social and Preventive Medicine at the University of Zurich . He was the founder of the first European university institute for preventive medicine. In 1987 he retired .

Schär's research on health promotion has been awarded several prizes, such as the Aeberhardt Prize in 1994 for crucial foundations for sustainable health promotion in Switzerland.

Schär also became involved in politics: From 1975 to 1982 he was the Ring of Independents of the Canton of Zurich in the National Council .

After his retirement, Schär was ICRC delegate in Geneva from 1987 to 1992 and president of the Swiss euthanasia organization " Exit (German Switzerland) " from 1992 to 1998 . In 1999 the canton of Zurich withdrew his permission to prescribe the suicide drug sodium pentobarbital .

He was also a member of the patronage committee of the foundation "Pro Open Doors of Switzerland", an organization for the promotion of contact points for people in emotional need.

Fonts (selection)

• Guide to Social and Preventive Medicine . Huber, Bern 1968; 3rd, expanded edition 1984, ISBN 3-456-80788-0 .
• I don't want to smoke anymore . Goldmann, Munich 1969; 3rd edition 1974, ISBN 3-442-10542-0 .
• Damage to health through tobacco consumption . Goldmann, Munich 1971, ISBN 3-442-50022-2 .
• Compendium of vaccinations . Karger, Basel 1973; 4th, revised edition 1991, ISBN 3-8055-5257-2 .
• Health and Illness in Industrial Society (with Kurt Biener ). Huber, Bern 1986, ISBN 3-456-81495-X .
• The seriously ill person's right to self-determination . Swiss Society for Health Policy , Muri 1994, ISBN 3-85707-036-6 .

literature

• Meinrad Schär and social and preventive medicine in Switzerland . In: Social and Preventive Medicine. ISSN  0303-8408 , 26: 209-215 (1981).

Web links

• Literature by and about Meinrad Schär in the catalog of the German National Library
• Susanne Peter-Kubli: Schär, Meinrad. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• “Fighter and gentleman” , Andreas Blum in conversation with Meinrad Schär

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.ispm.ch/index.php?id=geschichte  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ - ( Memento of the original from February 1, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated September 3, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.