The Corruption Of The Oath Of Hippocrates

For 2500 years the Hippocratic Oath had guided, guarded and grounded the medical profession.  It was a source of professional unity and pride, as well as an ancient and trusted ethical compass that assisted the profession (and patients) in the navigation of both familiar, as well as unchartered waters.  Its certain call for physicians to be defenders of life, not destroyers of it, did not survive Roe and Doe.

This is a commentary on the original Hippocratic Oath and the corrupted version. The Hippocratic Oath is attributed to Hippocrates of Cos (469-399 B.C.), who is also called the Father of Medicine.  This ancient Oath upheld by centuries of physicians has been corrupted by modern men and women with specific agendas.

I started medical school in 1971.  The beginning of human life was the first sentence of a standard textbook of Human Embryology.  This fact was taught without the faintest hint of controversy.  The biology of conception as the union of the oocyte and sperm had been known for more than 100 years.   Similarly, John Wilke MD has noted that he began medical school in 1944, and was taught the same elemental facts regarding the beginning of human life (conception), as was his father who began medical school in 1920, and his grandfather who began in 1890.  Sadly, after the “Supreme” legal instruction on ethics and embryology contained in Roe and Doe, the facts weren’t so clear for his daughter, who began medical school in 1976. (Wilke JC).   

Those of us in medical school in 1971 were, of course, taught the obvious, coherent and unambiguous principles of early Human Embryology that were contained in the standard (and most assuredly secular) textbooks.  We were completely unaware of efforts underway to exchange the truth of early human development for a lie that would be echoed in the supremely incoherent and anti-life Roe and Doe rulings.  Ultimately, and in time for our graduation in 1975, the Hippocratic Oath was also discarded in all but name.  Like sheep without a shepherd, our medical class was told nothing of secret meetings underway nationally to assault the discipline of Human Embryology, or local and equally hidden meetings, to gut and rewrite the Old Oath.  The judiciary’s assault on the foundational ethical and scientific principles of medicine has been indeed devastating.  

Roe and Doe (1973) occurred during my third year of medical school.  Strangely for sure, but even more sadly, I recall no discussion whatsoever of these momentous rulings.  The local paper put it on the second page; former President Lyndon Johnson had died and that was the news.  Before these secret meetings were over the Hippocratic Oath, a pagan but ethically high medical standard for 2500 years (a standard that was clearly at odds with the judiciary’s supremely conceived twins from Hell—Roe & Doe), had been severely corrupted.

I know this because about ten years ago, I discovered a long forgotten, rolled-up and stained parchment copy of the old Oath in a basement drawer.  A line-by-line comparison to the original was truly a sad, but eye-opening lesson.  We had been duped.  In four short years, medicine had been effectively turned upside down, and we had been told nothing of the re-tooling of the Hippocratic Oath, the AMA’s reversal of its long-standing defender of life posture, its rejection of the Hippocratic ethic, or the attempted corruption of embryology. 

The fundamental terms of life—terms that were so clear and consistent in our texts: conception, embryo, fetus, pregnancy, abortion, gestation, etc. had been altered.  This had to be done because of the already known (but hidden) abortifacient action of the Pill—a fact that is mentioned in every package insert (“the prevention of implantation”).  This result is the death of the early embryo, not a contraceptive action.  True, the early pills were more uniform in the prevention of ovulation, but the side effects—sometimes fatal — were more frequent, and the hormone dosage was therefore reduced.  The consequence was that break-thru ovulation became more common. 

Formerly, under the guidance of the Hippocratic ethic, and despite its intellectual, physical and emotional challenges, all in the midst of awesome wonders, medicine was still understood to be a compassionate and ethical profession.  The widely used medical textbook, The Developing Human, Clinically Oriented Embryology, refreshingly recaptures this sense of wonder, "The intricate processes by which a baby develops from a single cell are miraculous.... This cell [the zygote] results from the union of an oocyte [egg] and sperm. A zygote is the beginning of a new human being....”  Also, amazing is the recent report that “under the maternal humoral milieu of steroid hormones, especially progesterone” the endometrium is driven to secrete the necessary growth factors and cytokines conducive for embryo growth and development.  Additionally, the “preimplantation embryo dictates to the endometrium through secretory signals…cues towards its differentiation for blastocyst implantation.” With heretofore unknown mechanisms, the embryo initiates the ‘final preparation for descent.’ 

This is amazingly smart for what some have inaccurately called a ‘fertilized egg.’  Ultimately, this International Nomina Embryologica Committee (INEC) rejected term has been an agenda driven attempt to diminish the value, wonder and complexity of early human life (a la, ‘it’s only tissue’).  Fortunately, those who know the science best, Human Embryologists, guided scientifically and professionally by INEC, have never capitulated to this death culture subterfuge of a corrupted version of embryology.              

Human life does, in fact, begin with the fertilization of the oocyte by a sperm, and this is known to be conception, a wondrous first step that begins each and every human being’s new life and, barring an abortion or other tragedy, continues a long earthly journey—and, as most Christians believe, a journey that is ultimately for all eternity.

In the 2008 Third Presidential debate, the Hippocratic Oath was used by Candidate Obama to defend his four votes against the Illinois Born Alive Infants Protection Act.  His response was a whopper, “Their Hippocratic Oath would have required them to provide care, and there was already a law in the books.”  The Oath has been missing in action for years.  This response was as lame as Obama’s response that the beginning of life question “was above my pay grade.”  He responded, “If it sounds incredible that I would vote to withhold lifesaving treatment from an infant, that's because it's not true.”  Unfortunately, it was too true and simply pitiful.  The same bill later passed unanimously in the US Senate in ‘02 and was signed by Pres. Bush.      

I am presenting below the original Hippocratic Oath in regular font and the corrupted 1975 version in italics followed by a discussion that I wrote around 2006, and am sharing it with you now.

                                                               THE OATH OF HIPPOCRATES

I SWEAR by Apollo the physician, and Aesculapius, and Health, and All-heal, and all the gods and goddesses,

I do solemnly swear, by whatever I hold most sacred:

that, according to my ability and judgment, I will keep this Oath and this stipulation to reckon him who taught me this Art equally dear to me as my parents, to share my substance with him, and relieve his necessities if required; to look upon his offspring in the same footing as my own brothers, and to teach them this art, if they shall wish to learn it, without fee or stipulation; and that by precept, lecture, and every other mode of instruction, I will impart a knowledge of the Art to my own sons, and those of my teachers, and to disciples bound by a stipulation and oath according to the law of medicine, but to none others.

That I will be loyal to the profession of medicine and just and generous to its members;

I will follow that system of regimen which, according to my ability and judgment, I consider for the benefit of my patients, and abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous.

That I will lead my life and practice my profession in uprightness and honour;

I will give no deadly medicine to any one if asked, nor suggest any such counsel; and in like manner I will not give to a woman a pessary to produce abortion.

With purity and with holiness I will pass my life and practice my Art. I will not cut persons laboring under the stone, but will leave this to be done by men who are practitioners of this work.

That I will exercise my profession solely for the cure of my patients, and will give no drug, perform no operation, for a criminal purpose, even if solicited; far less suggest it.

Into whatever houses I enter, I will go into them for the benefit of the sick, and will abstain from every voluntary act of mischief and corruption; and, further from the seduction of females or males, of freemen and slaves.

That into whatsoever house I shall enter, it shall be for the good of the sick to the utmost of my power, holding myself far aloof from wrong, from corruption, from the tempting of others to vice;

Whatever, in connection with my professional practice or not, in connection with it, I see or hear, in the life of men, which ought not to be spoken of abroad, I will not divulge, as reckoning that all such should be kept secret.

That whatsoever I shall see or hear of the lives of men which is not fitting to be spoken, I will keep inviolably secret. These things I do swear.

While I continue to keep this Oath unviolated, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and the practice of the art, respected by all men, in all times! But should I trespass and violate this Oath, may the reverse be my lot!

And now, should I be true to this, my oath, may prosperity and good repute be ever mine; the opposite, should I prove myself forsworn. 

(Hippocrates, Works trans., Francis Adams)

Discussion

The Oath, which is now so dear and sacred to me, meant so little to me, that I skipped my medical school graduation in 1975, and also the taking of the old Oath.  Upon finding the Hippocratic Oath in the mid-1990’s and reading it, it just seemed somewhat strange.  Upon more formal research, I discovered that it was corrupted to the point that a Nazi soldier could have taken it without a wink or crossed fingers.  If the bar for ethics is what is legal, the Nazi’s were following legal (and deadly) orders.  The original Oath’s coverage of so many ethically foundational issues in so few words is evidence of ancient divine inspiration.  The original Hippocratic Oath’s covered ethical topics included:

Euthanasia:  The Oath of Hippocrates clearly prohibits euthanasia and physician assisted suicide (“I will give no deadly medicine to any one if asked, nor suggest any such counsel”).

Abortion:  The Oath of Hippocrates clearly prohibits abortion (“…and in like manner, I will not give to a woman a pessary to produce abortion”).  In times past, the thought of a physician performing such an act would have been unthinkable.  Medicine has been turned upside down since the 1960’s. 

Confidentiality:  One sentence (“Whatever, in connection with my professional practice or not, in connection with it, I see or hear, in the life of men, which ought not to be spoken of abroad, I will not divulge, as reckoning that all such should be kept secret”) in the Hippocratic Oath also sufficed for patient confidentiality for 2500 years.  Enacted in 2002 with perhaps 77,000 pages of legalese, HIPAA (disingenuously named the “Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act”), has corrupted the ancient professional confidentiality expectation to the point that insurers now routinely demand the release of patient’s records without the patient’s written permission.  Such release of information is permitted under HIPAA, but insurance companies now act as if the physician is required to release this information.  The policy, patient information release without the traditional standard of a signed authorization, was a last minute concession by the Bush administration to the insurance companies.

Sexual abuse:  The Oath of Hippocrates also clearly prohibits sexual abuse of patients—either heterosexual or homosexual—(“…and will abstain from every voluntary act of mischief and corruption; and, further from the seduction of females or males, of freemen and slaves”).

Purity and Holiness:  Most amazing is the fact that the Oath of Hippocrates also calls for purity and holiness among physicians (“With purity and with holiness I will pass my life and practice my Art”).  

Maintain original integrity.  The Oath is a monumental testimonial to the natural law.  It is anathema to a post-virtue contracepting, co-habitating world.  

An excellent historical review of the Old Oath appeared in the Linacre Quarterly in November 2010.  Author, Patrick Riley, makes a compelling point:

"How could the Hippocratc Oath have survived intact through the Christian millennia although it appeals to the false gods of Greece?  Did not early Christians die rather than show reverence to false gods?

The answer must be not that tradition trumps truth, but rather that an understood truth undergirds a perduring tradition, while they sustain one another.

The authorities of the Church, in their wisdom, concluded that the Hippocratic Oath derived much of its force from its untouchability, its integrity throughout the ages.  It was a monument of antiquity, and as such ought not be tampered with, even improved.  Any such improvement, however genuine, would turn the Oath from a monument of antiquity into an artifact of modernity."

The house of medicine will not be restored to honor and integrity without first a return to the Hippocratic Oath (or at least a faithful version of it). 

References

Hippocrates, Works trans., Francis Adams (New York; Loeb) vol. 1, 299-301. [Hippocrates was and early and very influential Greek physician of about the Fifth Century BCE. His writings not only had a great impact on the content of Greek medical thought, but also on the ethics of medical practice.]

Riley PGD.  The import of an Oath.  Linacre Quarterly.  2010:77:389-398.

Wilke JC.  At conception.  LifeIssuesInstitute: Radio Transcript (Life Issues # 2241). [cited 2008 Jun 26] Available from: URL: http://www.lifeissues.org/radio/r2000/r00-02/lr2241.html