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President's MessageHippocrates And His Oath — Are They Still Relevant?N.H. Tucker, III, M.D., President
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| Hippocrates of Cos ( 460 - 377 B. C.) is called the "Father of
Medicine." He was a contemporary of Plato in the classical Golden Age of Greece when
ideas and innovation were in their heyday. Throughout history, medicine had been practiced
by magicians, shaman, and priests; but Hippocrates and his followers were able to change
this by establishing medicine as an art/science based on observations of nature. Since
diseases were a result of nature, they could be prognosticated on and possibly
successfully treated by utilizing nature's laws. Observations from personal experience and
from medical writings could be used by the physician to cure illness. The surviving body of literature known as the Hippocratic Corpus was believed to have been written in the 5th, 4th, and 3rd centuries B.C. by numerous writers including Hippocrates and possibly many of his students and followers. It has been proposed that the Hippocratic Corpus is in actuality the remains of the library of the Hippocratic School at Cos. The Hippocratic Oath is certainly the most famous and possibly the most important part of the Hippocratic Corpus. For centuries it has helped to maintain the high ethical standard and resulting trust and respect afforded to Western Physicians. One translation of the Hippocratic Oath is as follows: "I swear by Apollo the physician, by Aesculapius, Hygeia and Panacea, and I take to witness all the gods, all the goddesses, to keep according to my ability and my judgement the following oath: To consider dear to me as my parents him who taught me this art; to live in common with him and if necessary to share my goods with him; to look upon his children as my own brothers, to teach them this art if they so desire without fee or written promise; to impart to my sons and the sons of the master who taught me and the disciples who have enrolled themselves and who have agreed to the rules of the profession, but to these alone, the precepts and the instruction. I will prescribe regimen for the good of my patients according to my ability and judgement and never do harm to anyone. To please no one will I prescribe a deadly drug, nor give advice which may cause his death. Nor will I give a woman a pessary to procure abortion. But I will preserve the purity of my life and my art. I will not cut for stone, even for patients in whom the disease is manifest; I will leave this operation to be performed by practitioners (specialists in this art). In every house where I come I will enter only for the good of my patients, keeping myself far from all intentional ill-doing and all seduction, and especially from the pleasures of love with women or with men, be they free or slaves. All that may come to my knowledge in the exercise of my profession or outside of my profession or in daily commerce with men, which ought not to be spread abroad, I will keep secret and never reveal. If I keep this oath faithfully, may I enjoy my life and practice my art, respected by all men and in all times; but if I swerve from it or violate it, may the reverse be my lot." So, to answer the question posed by this article: yes, Hippocrates is relevant. He is relevant as the "Father of Medicine", just as George Washington is relevant as the "Father of the United States of America." He is an icon that physicians can respect and be proud to call one of their own. In this day of questioning everything and hero and institution bashing, new heroes and icons are almost an impossibility. Hippocrates has the advantage of antiquity. The Hippocratic Oath is also still relevant. It is the basis and symbol of the high ethical standard of Western Medicine. Even today, its basic tenets are still very much in place. These tenets are: 1) to save lives, never to take them; 2) to avoid improper relationships with patients including sexual ones; and 3) to protect patient confidentiality. The Hippocratic Oath has been refined and rewritten and other newer pledges have been developed such as the Declaration of Geneva and the Oath of Maimonides. However, the basic tenets of the Hippocratic Oath are included in these newer oaths and these same tenets are codified in our structure of laws. REFERENCES Sournia JG. The Illustrated History of Medicine. Collier's Encyclopedia July, 1999/ Jacksonville Medicine What's New
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