The Hippocratic Oath

For health practitioners the Hippocratic Oath applies. In its original form it reads:

 “I swear by Apollo The 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 physician’s oath, but to nobody else.
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• I will use treatment to help the sick according to my ability and judgment, but never with a view to injury and wrong-doing.
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• Neither will I administer a poison to anybody when asked to do so, nor will I suggest such a course.
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• Similarly, I will not give to a woman a pessary to cause abortion.
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• But I will keep pure and holy both my life and my art.
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• I will not use the knife, not even, verily, on sufferers from stone (kidney stones), but I will give place to such as are craftsmen therein.
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• 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. 
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• 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hear in the course of my profession, as well as outside my profession in my intercourse with men, if it be what should not be published abroad, I will never divulge, holding such things to be holy secrets.
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• Now if I carry out this oath, and break it not, may I gain forever reputation among all men for my life and for my art; but if I transgress it and forswear myself, may the opposite befall me.”
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A modern rendition might be:

• First do no harm.
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• I will respect the scientific medical knowledge (no matter what its source) and share it.
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• Emotional states affect health. As a practitioner, I will never express negative emotions in the presence of a patient.
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• I will be genuinely considerate of the patient (and the patient’s family and close associates).
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• When I do not know, I will say so. When unsure, I will seek assistance. When applying a theory, I will declare it so.
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• Respect for privacy is absolute. Never will I discuss what a patient says in the context of treatment or reveal the causes of a given patient’s condition.
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• Prevention is better than cure.
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