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posted ago by clemaneuverers ago by clemaneuverers +19 / -0

As it's used today (if used at all) the modern Hippocratic oath is as follows, according to wikipedia:


  • I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:

  • I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.

  • I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures [that] are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism.

  • I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug.

  • I will not be ashamed to say "I know not", nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient's recovery.

  • I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.

  • I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person's family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick.

  • I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure.

  • 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.


Now compare it with the "original" oath, which may or may not have been used in this form, but is actually Hippocrate's Oath, here translated to English in 1923 from the earliest known papyrus copy:


I swear by Apollo Healer, by Asclepius, by Hygieia, by Panacea, and by all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will carry out, according to my ability and judgment, this oath and this indenture."

To hold my teacher in this art equal to my own parents; to make him partner in my livelihood; when he is in need of money to share mine with him; to consider his family as my own brothers, and to teach them this art, if they want to learn it, without fee or indenture; to impart precept, oral instruction, and all other instruction to my own sons, the sons of my teacher, and to indentured pupils who have taken the Healer’s oath, but to nobody else."

I will use those dietary regimens which will benefit my patients according to my greatest ability and judgment, and I will do no harm or injustice to them.[7] Neither will I administer a poison to anybody when asked to do so, nor will I suggest such a course. Similarly I will not give to a woman a pessary to cause abortion. But I will keep pure and holy both my life and my art. I will not use the knife, not even, verily, on sufferers from stone, but I will give place to such as are craftsmen therein."

Into whatsoever houses I enter, I will enter to help the sick, and I will abstain from all intentional wrong-doing and harm, especially from abusing the bodies of man or woman, bond or free. And whatsoever I shall see or hear in the course of my profession, as well as outside my profession in my intercourse with men, if it be what should not be published abroad, I will never divulge, holding such things to be holy secrets."

Now if I carry out this oath, and break it not, may I gain for ever reputation among all men for my life and for my art; but if I break it and forswear myself, may the opposite befall me.


They have things in common, but I only want to point out some key differences here.

Surmised, from original to modern:

  • Swearing before Gods in the original, no mention of any God in the modern; except when encouraging the student not to play at being one.

  • Respect and love my teacher in the original, becomes respect and do not contradict my teacher's "discoveries" i.e. "The science" (whatever those discoveries they may be? regardless of error, quality and/or effectiveness?)

  • In the original, the 1st mention of treatment is related to Dietary Regimens - In the modern, diet is not mentioned at all. It speaks of prevention, but not what kind.

  • In the original the student swears not to help a woman to perform an abortion. No mention in the modern.

You can read more about the different oaths in operation around the world here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocratic_Oath

I was surprised to see how different the modern is compared to the original, but also how often it has been revised. What inspired me to look into this was seeing this quote, attributed to Hippocrates:

Everyone has a doctor in him or her; we just have to help it in its work. The natural healing force within each one of us is the greatest force in getting well. Our food should be our medicine. Our medicine should be our food. But to eat when you are sick, is to feed your sickness."

So it turns out modern Allopathy is in complete contradiction to Hippocratean thought. Yet we all think of modern doctors as having sworn some "hippocratic oath".

It's not a Hippocratic Oath, is a Rockefeller Oath.