The Undermining of the Hippocratic Oath
Wesley J Smith, at Secondhand Smoke, has posted several recent blogs on the Hippocratic Oath. The original blog concerned the rewriting of the oath by Cornell University. The original oath can be found here. The Hippocratic Oath is taken by physicians across America as they graduated from medical school. Of note, there has been a watering down of the language of the oath over the past several years. Smith now calls the oath pabulum, insipid intellectual nourishment.
Two statements of importance have fallen into disfavor in more recent versions of the Oath. The first is a prohibition against abortion. More recently, yet, are prohibitions from doing anything to bring about death in a patient. The Cornell approved oath has also removed important language protecting the patient from being taken sexually advantage of.
It is sad that we are letting down on important safeguards meant to protect the patient. The devaluing of human life continues.