Hippocrates

(460?-380? B.C.) was a well-known ancient doctor who practiced medicine on the Greek island of Cos. Long after his death, Hippocrates became the most famous person in ancient medicine. Hippocrates is often called the father of medicine. This image of him emerged from the writings of Galen, a great doctor who lived during the A.D. 100’s and 200’s. To Galen, the Hippocratic oath served as a model for the ethical practice of medicine. On qualifying, medical students still take an oath modeled on this text. Hippocratic medicine taught that diseases had natural causes and could therefore be studied and possibly cured according to the workings of nature.

The Hippocratic Oath

I swear by Apollo Physician and Asclepius and Hygieia and Panaceia and all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will fulfill according to my ability and judgment this oath and this covenant:

To hold him who has taught me this art as equal to my parents and to live my life in partnership with him, and if he is in need of money to give him a share of mine, and to regard his offspring as equal to my brothers in male lineage and to teach them this art – if they desire to learn it – without fee and covenant; to give a share of precepts and oral instruction and all the other learning to my sons and to the sons of him who has instructed me and to pupils who have signed the covenant and have taken an oath according to the medical law, but to no one else.

I will apply dietetic measures for the benefit of the sick according to my ability and judgment; I will keep them from harm and injustice.

I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody if asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Similarly I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy. In purity and holiness I will guard my life and my art.

I will not use the knife, not even on sufferers from stone, but will withdraw in favour of such men as are engaged in this work.

Whatever houses I may visit, I will come for the benefit of the sick, remaining free of all intentional injustice, of all mischief and in particular of sexual relations with both female and male persons, be they free or slaves.

What I may see or hear in the course of the treatment or even outside of the treatment in regard to the life of men, which on no account one must spread abroad, I will keep to myself, holding such things shameful to be spoken about.

If I fulfill this oath and do not violate it, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and art, being honoured with fame among all men for all time to come; if I trangress it and swear falsely, may the opposite of all this be my lot.

An excerpt from the World Book Encyclopedia