ABSTRACT
Ancient Romans used to say 'historia magistra vitae'. History can be seen as a big sociology laboratory which proves or disproves various theoretical thesis and concepts. For example, the history of the rise and fall of the Russian Federation of Soviet Socialist Republics and its satellites disproved the main concepts of egalitarian Marxist philosophy and economy. Profound societal changes in European post-communist countries and the ongoing process of democratization of these countries can test some concepts used traditionally in West Europe. Stephen Toulmin (1982) wrote that 'medicine saved the life of ethics' and we can agree that medicine which cannot be concerned with abstract speculations and which needs decisions done here and now can also test the applicability of some theoretical concepts. In the last 17 years several post-communist countries, now members of the EU, accepted many rules and concepts in their healthcare, which were common in traditional EU countries. The implementation of many rules in legislation and in everyday practice was not simple. There were differences in understanding and sometimes even misunderstandings of some concepts. These difficulties can be understood as signs of retardation of development in post-communist countries. But it is also possible that some difficulties in the application of traditional Western concepts could be the occasion for rethinking them and asking questions on limits of their universality. The European Union is multicultural; each region has its cultural specificity. Therefore also the value systems and perception of ethical principles is different in various countries (Leino-Kilpi et al. 2003). For this reason many differences in the organization of healthcare systems across Europe can be seen. It is another justification to ask questions about the limits of traditional concepts.
