The Hippocratic Oath: A Prolife Ethic

The other morning a physician being interviewed on television happened to mention the Hippocratic Oath while responding briefly to a question on the ethics of medical treatment as it relates to the dying. Listening to him I realized I hadn't read the oath since I was in high school and really couldn't recall very much about it other than doing no harm...so I looked it up.

Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.), generally considered to be the father of medicine, is said to have formulated his famous oath as a guiding ethical code for physicians. Unfortunately, modern bioethics has caused many to view the ancient oath as an obsolete remnant that no longer applies in today's more progressive climate. But when we consider that Greek medicine was probably better than anything that followed until well into the 19th century, perhaps we shouldn't be quite so dismissive of Hippocrates. I've included the oath in its entirety below (translated from the Greek by Ludwig Edelstein, 1943). Note its strong and consistent pro-life theme.

Hippocrates treating a patient

The Hippocratic Oath -- Traditional Text

I swear by Apollo Physician and Asclepius and Hygieia and Panaceia and all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will fulfill according to my ability and judgment this oath and this covenant:

To hold him who has taught me this art as equal to my parents and to live my life in partnership with him, and if he is in need of money to give him a share of mine, and to regard his offspring as equal to my brothers in male lineage and to teach them this art - if they desire to learn it - without fee and covenant; to give a share of precepts and oral instruction and all the other learning to my sons and to the sons of him who has instructed me and to pupils who have signed the covenant and have taken an oath according to the medical law, but no one else.

I will apply dietetic measures for the benefit of the sick according to my ability and judgment; I will keep them from harm and injustice.

I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Similarly I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy. In purity and holiness I will guard my life and my art.

I will not use the knife, not even on sufferers from stone, but will withdraw in favor of such men as are engaged in this work.

Whatever houses I may visit, I will come for the benefit of the sick, remaining free of all intentional injustice, of all mischief and in particular of sexual relations with both female and male persons, be they free or slaves.

What I may see or hear in the course of the treatment or even outside of the treatment in regard to the life of men, which on no account one must spread abroad, I will keep to myself, holding such things shameful to be spoken about.

If I fulfill this oath and do not violate it, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and art, being honored with fame among all men for all time to come; if I transgress it and swear falsely, may the opposite of all this be my lot.

Interesting, how "progressive" we are today, isn't it?