Who believes that doctors actually take the Hippocratic Oath?

Time has changed and I dont think Doctors of this age practice Old traditions.The original text of the Hippocratic Oath is usually interpreted as one of the first statements of a moral of conduct to be used by physicians, assuming the respect for all human life, even unborn. Most Christian tradition interprets the original Hippocratic Oath as a condemnation of abortion and infanticide. "For the first time in our tradition there was a complete separation between killing and curing. Throughout the primitive world, the doctor and the sorcerer tended to be the same person. He with the power to kill had power to cure, including specially the undoing of his own killing activities. He who had the power to cure would necessarily also be able to kill... With the Greeks the distinction was made clear. One profession, the followers of Asclepius, were to be dedicated completely to life under all circumstances, regardless of rank, age or intellect – the life of a slave, the life of the Emperor, the life of a foreign man, the life of a defective child..."

Hippocratic Oath Modern Version

1

The Hippocratic oath today is symbolic only. Its an ancient oath that most doctors around the world take but are not ethically bound to. What actually is legally and morally binding for a doctor is their medical license. Like you said, one of the lines in the oath is never to give an abortion, but lots of doctors do. And of course, all invasive surgeries require the use of a knife.

Well Speed dog i'm vary shocked at this information. Intel now i had know idea Doctors didn't tale the Hippocratic oath. It was always something that gave me a sense of security believing that Doctors took this oath . Knowing now where the oaths roots are bast i'm glad doctors now don't take the oath any more.

I have been under a Doctors care most of my life starting at age six with cancer Hisytotoses X of the vertebra L2 & C4 it has caused me of health problems threw my life . Most of my Doctors spook of believing in a higher power an God so in short i've been in vary good hands all my life .

Thanks for the enlightenment

Our graduation oath sworn by our entire class (1984 Univ of Miami) was the Oath of Maimonides.

It has been that oath for some time now, I review every now and then.

A significant portion of the School has always been Jewish but there is nothing anti-Christian or anti-Muslim in the oath

From what I see, the Old Tradition is alive in Miami.

First of all some doctors do take the Hippocratic Oath just to keep up tradition.

But your ???????? Do medical doctors actually swear the Hippocratic Oath these days? I am led to believe that doctors now take a different Hippocratic Oath.

Upon graduation, many medical students take a modern version of the oath written by Louis Lasagna in 1964

THE HIPPOCRATIC OATH: MODERN VERSION:

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 over treatment 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 patent'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.

I graduated in 1984 from Indiana University School of Medicine and I think they read it at graduation if memory serves. But there was no swearing! My dad says he did take this oath when he graduated in 1954 from IU though he doesn't remember pagan gods and no surgery as being part of it. I wonder if it was modified?

reckoning on wether or not you communicate approximately the fetus a individual. that's what the middle of the abortion debate is approximately. different issues that violate the hippocratic oath stay wills, and finishing a coma victims existence to get organs.

Another interesting question...you're on fire today!

I will say, that I was under the impression that doctors took an oath - the Hippocratic Oath, if you will - where they swore to "Above all, do no harm".