I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.
If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help.
Upon graduation, many medical students take a modern version of the oath written by Louis Lasagna in In some medical schools, the Declaration of Geneva physician's oath is used. These maxims were held sacred in the classical version. The Hippocratic Oath covers several important ethical issues between doctors and patients. However, many people believe that the oath does not help resolve modern issues.
Some examples are: 1 government and health-care organizations demand more patient information; this makes one wonder how a doctor can maintain a patient's privacy. With such unanswered issues, many physicians feel that the Hippocratic Oath is inadequate to address the realities of modern medicine.
In post-World War II, the WMA in Geneva, Switzerland, was concerned because of revelations that doctors in Nazi Germany conducted wicked and atrocious human experimentation on prisoners of war and civilians of occupied countries; the doctors were also accused of planning and performing the mass murder of prisoners of war and civilians of occupied countries under the guise of euthanasia.
There was a Euthanasia Program where the human patients were branded as aged, insane, incurably ill, deformed, and were in nursing homes and asylums. The doctors were reported to have performed medical experiments on such people without the patient's consent.
It was proven also that, in the course of such experiments, the defendants committed murders, brutalities, cruelties, tortures, atrocities, and other inhuman acts. Japan wanted to develop weapons of biological warfare including plague, anthrax, cholera, and a dozen other pathogens. These horrible atrocities were committed by some of the Japan's most distinguished doctors.
The US Army granted immunity from war crimes prosecution the Japanese doctors involved in such shameful research practices in exchange for data that were gathered through human experimentation. The information and experience gained in the bio-weapons' research were incorporated into the US biological warfare program. In other words, the US helped cover up human experimentation. These events and concern over the state of medical ethics in general and all over the world spurred the WMA in Geneva to adopt the Declaration of Geneva[ 14 ] or Physician's Oath in , which was amended in , , , and The Declaration of Geneva [ Table 4 ] was a revision of the Hippocratic Oath, keeping the moral truth of its concepts so that ethical issues of modern medicine are covered.
It is a declaration of a physician's dedication to the humanitarian goals of medicine. The WMA took responsibility for setting ethical guidelines for the world physicians and has become the recognized authority to speak for the doctors of the world in international affairs.
The Muslim physician cannot swear allegiance to the original Hippocratic Oath because of its invocation to various Gods. In Islam, the first source of Islamic law is the Qur'an, which contains the rules of conduct that a person or group hold as reliable in differentiating right from wrong.
This is pretty much what ethics is all about — the ability to differentiate between right and wrong. Muslims believe that character traits of the moral and honest physician are already embedded in the Qur'an and the Sunna, the two primary sources of Islamic law. The Sunna is the verbally transmitted record of the teachings, deeds, and sayings of the prophet Muhammad. Therefore, as Muslims grow up, they are guided by the Qur'an and the Sunna, hence the Muslim physician will possess the necessary character traits of a decent and noble physician.
The Qur'an instructs Muslims on all aspects of their daily life, from cleanliness to health matters. A person's character is shaped during childhood and adulthood, and hence character education should begin in childhood — at home and in school. The role model for such moral behavior is the prophet Muhammad. Therefore, emulating the prophet Muhammad is desirable for He is an inspiration to everyone. His teachings inspire the lives of people with virtue, good manners, and moderation.
Consequently, a good Muslim physician has no need to pledge loyalty to an Oath. Islam sets the foundations for behaving well and possessing the requisite character traits to become a fine person and by extension, a physician with good moral fiber. Muslim physicians are guided by their Quran which clearly states:.
He exhorts you that you may be mindful. We know that the heart of medicine is the doctor—patient relationship. Ethics in its unsophisticated form is the ability to differentiate right from wrong. The Oath of Hippocrates has historically guided physician's professional conduct.
Its principles are held sacred by doctors to this day. Some say that the oath is irrelevant in modern medical practice because it does not address ethical issues that are relevant today. Many medical schools still administer a version of the Hippocratic Oath to its graduates. Muslim physicians are brought up by similar ethical teachings in the Qur'an. A physician with a Western upbringing may or may not swear allegiance to the Oath. National Center for Biotechnology Information , U.
Widely known modern versions include the Declaration of Geneva, adopted by the World Medical Association in and periodically updated to today. Another well-known version, the oath written by Louis Lasagna, then the Dean of the Tufts University School of Medicine, includes pledges to avoid overtreatment and to pursue disease prevention.
Although some aspects of the Hippocratic Oath are not directly applicable to modern practice, such as swearing by the Greek gods who were believed to oversee medicine, much of the oath is still important for nurses and others on the medical care team. The overarching theme of the Hippocratic Oath and of its modern descendants is the idea that the individual reciting the pledge is making a personal dedication to ethical and committed care. Though the recitation of the Hippocratic Oath may be symbolic, modern day practitioners adhere to these tenets in on a daily basis when following more modern codes such as HIPAA.
Another key theme that the Hippocratic Oath and the modern versions share is the idea that medical professionals should promote health knowledge and skills between one another and between the care team and patients. This aspect of the oath is particularly significant because in the centuries since the oath was first written, medicine has developed into a much more complex and diversified science.
Today there are primary, general-practice care teams as well as secondary-care teams in various specialties and treatment modalities. Statues and drawings show him with a furrowed brow, thinking hard about how to heal his patients. And today, the internet is full of claims that if you follow a supposedly Hippocratic diet of raw organic foods or concentrate on one of his alleged favourite foods, such as watercress , you will be healed.
The most famous of the treatises linked to his name over time is the Hippocratic Oath , which has sometimes been taken by medics as they vow to uphold ethical standards in their profession. And what a model it offers: in the Oath doctors are to keep away from abortion and euthanasia. Nor should they have sex with patients — men or women, free or slave.
But in fact, the Hippocratic Oath has nothing to do with Hippocrates. So why has it been attached to his name? They were written over many centuries in different Greek dialects. They also have different ideas about the body and healing. The philosopher Plato gave the only near-contemporary account of the real Hippocrates behind the myths.
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