Ca. 1755-1750BCE

Creation of Code of Hammurabi, a Babylonian (Iraq) legal text that stipulates re surgery, surgeon is paid only if treatment is successful. If something goes wrong, surgeon called to account. If a bone is broken during surgery, then one of his own bones should be broken (article 197). If a patient is a nobleman (awelum) who dies at the hands of a surgeon, the surgeon’s own hands are to be cut off (article 218) (Van de Laar, ch 7).