THE HIPPOCRATIC OATH

By Dr. Lawrence Wilson

All information in this article is for educational purposes only. It is not for the diagnosis, treatment, prescription or cure of any disease or health condition.

For years, physicians around the world were required to take the Hippocratic Oath before they began to work with people’s health. It was supposedly written by the great Greek physician, Hippocrates, and his students, around the third century before Christ.

Things have deteriorated badly in medicine, in my view. The oath is sadly no longer required, or has been changed to modern gobbligook.

Here is the Hippocratic Oath, with my comments in bold print. Read it and weep:

“I swear by Apollo the physician, and Aesculapius the surgeon, likewise Hygeia and Panacea, and call all the gods and goddesses to witness, that I will observe and keep this underwritten oath, to the utmost of my power and judgment.

I will reverence my master who taught me the art. Equally with my parents, will I allow him things necessary for his support, and will consider his sons as brothers. I will teach them my art without reward or agreement; and I will impart all my acquirement, instructions, and whatever I know, to my master's children, as to my own; and likewise to all my pupils, who shall bind and tie themselves by a professional oath, but to none else.

With regard to healing the sick, I will devise and order for them the best diet, according to my judgment and means. (Notice that this is the first item in the oath – the most important!)

I will take care that they suffer no hurt or damage. (Notice that provision! Modern medicine is now at least the third leading cause of death in America, and perhaps the leading cause.)

Nor shall any man's entreaty prevail upon me to administer poison to anyone; Neither will I counsel any man to do so.

Moreover, I will give no sort of medicine to any pregnant woman, with a view to destroy the child. (This oath is pre-Christian, by the way. The ancient Greeks knew that abortion is not wise.

Further, I will comport myself and use my knowledge in a godly manner.

I will not cut for the stone, but will commit that affair entirely to the surgeons.

Whatsoever house I may enter, my visit shall be for the convenience and advantage of the patient; and I will willingly refrain from doing any injury or wrong from falsehood (In other words, the doctor must not lie and must not be bound by a licensing board or attorneys who suggest defensive medicine).

Especially, I shall refrain from acts of an amorous nature, whatever may be the rank of those who it may be my duty to cure, whether mistress or servant, bond or free.

Whatever, in the course of my practice, I may see or hear (even when not invited), whatever I may happen to obtain knowledge of, if it be not proper to repeat it, I will keep sacred and secret within my own breast. (This is sadly totally gone today with the HIPPA “privacy” law in the USA and electronic medical records).

If I faithfully observe this oath, may I thrive and prosper in my fortune and profession, and live in the estimation of posterity; or on breach thereof, may the reverse be my fate!

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