Posts Tagged ‘doctors oath’
Doctor’s Oath
The Doctor’s oath is one that is tied to practicing medicine ethically. The doctor’s oath may be called the Hippocratic oath. Hippocrates is considered the father of western medicine. There is some ambiguity to the actual thoughts of Hippocrates because most of his teachings are from the Hippocratic corpus. The corpus is a collection of approximately seventy early Greek medical works (textbooks, lectures, essays, research and notes). The works are from various authors and contain varied content. It has been said that it is not likely that all of the works are from Hippocrates himself (based on subject and writing style).
The doctors oath itself is one of the works of the corpus. The oath addresses doctor philosophy (doctor principles) as well as practical issues and is one of the most well known of Greek medical text. Over time, the oath has been re-written to meet the needs of different cultures. Therefore, the doctors oath is one that is varied in content depending on where one may hear it. It’s no surprise that the oath is varied in content based on the need. The classic English translation of the oath starts as follows:
“I swear by Apollo the physician and Asclepius and Hygieia and Panaceia and all the gods and goddesses, making them my witness, that I will fulfill according to my ability and judgment this oath and this covenant”. How practical is that? Though the modern version reads much more clearly it has been said (though not verified) that some medical schools don’t even require the oath.
The doctors oath is much like other oaths taken by professionals. Ultimately, it is up to the individual to uphold the overall theme of the oath. One would hope that a doctor would be ethical without the oath. The oath is merely “right of passage” if you will. Doctors are indeed individual and simply because they have taken an oath, it does not mean that the doctor is always ethical. There are many incidents that we can point to such as Dr Jack Kevorkian. Dr Kevorkian is most known for assisting over 100 individuals to commit physician-assisted suicide. Dr Kevorkian was a champion for Dr. assisted suicide.
Though Dr Kevorkian is not alone in some of his principles and theories, his actions earned him 8 years jail time for second-degree murder. When speaking of the doctors oath and those who do not uphold it, this is an obvious extreme. However, it must be noted that with any extreme, there are many hues between. In other words there are those who uphold the doctors oath to the utmost and stay well within the “medical box”. Then there are those who stick their toes outside of the box. Then those like Dr Jack who trampolines out of the box and is not even in the same hemisphere as most. Again, Kevorkian had followers who believed in him. However, the masses would agree that his methodology does not/did not uphold the doctors oath.
In closing, we know that people are people. Whether taking an oath for presidency and receiving “presidential favors” under a white house desk or taking an Hippocratic oath and assisting many to commit suicide, it still comes down to people. Real people make real decisions and an oath does not necessarily change the person or make him better. Do your due diligence when choosing your doctors. Don’t rely on an oath.
