The Hippocratic Oath

January 16, 2025 by Doctor Vernon Coleman

When I qualified as a doctor I was invited to take the Hippocratic Oath. It was optional. Some young doctors said they would. Many said they wouldn’t. I happily took the Oath. Today, the Hippocratic Oath is considered out of date by the medical establishment and the General Medical Council in the UK (the body with the job of licensing doctors).

Here, so that you can make up your own mind, are the principle and relevant sections of the Hippocratic Oath:

‘I swear that I will carry out, according to my ability and judgement, this oath.

I will use those dietary regimens which will benefit my patients according to my greatest ability and judgement, and I will do no harm or injustice to them. Neither will I administer a poison to anybody when asked to do so, nor will I suggest such a course. But I will keep pure and holy both my life and my art. I will not use the knife, not even, verity 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 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.

(Note: you will see that the Hippocratic Oath forbids euthanasia/doctor assisted suicide. What a pity it is that the Hippocratic Oath is no longer compulsory for doctors. I wonder what it is about the Oath which the medical establishment finds unacceptable.)

Note
This was taken from Vernon Coleman’s Commonplace Book which is available from the bookshop on www.vernoncoleman.com Or just CLICK HERE

Copyright Vernon Coleman January 2025