The Hippocratic Oath

THE HIPPOCRATIC OATH

We have all heard about the Hippocratic Oath, even if we don't know what all is in it, and what we do know is delivered through television and is wrong. We hear TV doctors say "remember what it says in the Hippocratic Oath: 'First, do no harm'" but that isn't in the Hippocratic Oath. That is just an old Latin saying.

The Hippocratic Oath is the oath historically taken by doctors, and it was written by a Greek doctor named Hippocrates 400 years before the birth of Christ. And the first part of the oath states: "I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone."

So really, if we took a similar oath to never harm anyone, we would be well on the way. It is interesting that for over two thousand years, that statement was part of the oath, but it's no longer there, possibly because there is another portion that is now missing: "I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked, nor will I advise such a plan; and similarly I will not give a woman a potion to cause an abortion."

(From a sermon by Denn Guptill, The Nature of Love, 6/13/2010)