The Hippocratic Oath for Hypocrites – What did medical professionals swear to do for you?

The Hippocratic Oath is an oath historically taken by doctors swearing to practice medicine ethically.  The Greek physician, Hippocrates, from the 5th Century B.C., is the author.  Adopted about 26 centuries ago it withstood the test of time for nearly 2,500 years before changes in 1948 and 1964, the last 67 years, effectively destroyed the original intent.

From the website Greek Medicine.net we learn the following.

HIPPOCRATES

Father of Medicine

Medical historians generally look to Hippocrates as the founder of medicine as a rational science.  It was Hippocrates who finally freed medicine from the shackles of magic, superstition, and the supernatural.  Hippocrates collected data and conducted experiments to show that disease was a natural process and that the signs and symptoms of a disease resulted from the natural reactions of the body to the disease process.  He also believed that the chief role of the physician was to aid the natural resistance of the body to overcome the metabolic imbalance and restore health and harmony to the organism.

Hippocrates was born on the island of Cos, off the southwest coast of Asia Minor, or present-day Turkey, around 460 B.C.  His father was a physician-priest in the Asclepion at Cos, and his family could trace its lineage back to the legendary Asclepius.  Hippocrates lived a very long life and died at a ripe old age in the town of Larissa in Thessaly.

The Hippocratic Revolution

When Hippocrates began to practice medicine, the established school of medicine was the Cnidian School, but this school's approach to medicine had several serious flaws, which were already becoming apparent and starting to cause a general dissatisfaction with the art of medicine.

The Cnidian School considered the body to be merely a collection of isolated parts, and saw diseases manifesting in a particular organ or body part as affecting that part only, which alone was treated.  Their system of diagnosis was also faulty, relying exclusively on the subjective symptoms related by the patient, while totally ignoring the objective signs of the disease.

Hippocrates radically disagreed with the Cnidian School, countering that the human body functioned as one unified organism, or physis, and must be treated, in health and disease, as one coherent, integrated whole.  In diagnosis, not only the patient's subjective symptoms, but the objective signs of the disease must also be considered to arrive at an accurate assessment of what was going on.

As his unifying theory for the holistic understanding of the human organism, and how it functions in health and disease, Hippocrates used the concept of the Four Humors.  Building on the groundwork of humoral physiology and pathology laid by his predecessors, Hippocrates finally brought the theory of the Four Humors into its classical form.

Health is a harmonious balance of the Four Humors.  Disease results from their disharmony and imbalance.  The physician's job is to restore health by correcting the imbalance and restoring harmony to the humors.

To quote Hippocrates:

"The body of man has in itself blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile; these make up the nature of the body, and through these he feels pain or enjoys health.  Now, he enjoys the most perfect health when these elements are duly proportioned to one another in respect to compounding, power and bulk, and when they are perfectly mingled.  Pain is felt when one of these elements is in defect or excess, or is isolated in the body without being compounded with all the others."

The Nature of Man

Hippocrates took his band of renegade physicians with him to the island of Cos.  There, they set about to revolutionize the art of medicine and put its theory and practice on a truer, sounder footing.

Hippocratic Medicine

Physiology and pathology in Hippocratic medicine was based on the Four Humors.  A united confluence and sympathy between all four humors working together was necessary for good health.  Pneuma - the Breath or Vital Force, and the Innate Heat, which were suffused into the blood from the lungs via the heart, gave the blood the power to sustain life.

Hippocrates saw pepsis, or an orderly, balanced, harmonious digestion and metabolism of the Four Humors as being essential to all good health.  In disorders of pepsis Hippocrates saw the origin of most disease.

Hippocrates' anatomical knowledge was rather scant, but this is compensated for by his profound insights into human physiology and the soundness of his reasoning.  But even so, his surgical techniques for dislocations of the hip and jaw were unsurpassed until the nineteenth century.

In therapeutics, Hippocrates saw the physician as the servant and facilitator of Nature.  All medical treatment was aimed at enabling the natural resistance of the organism to prevail and overcome the disease, to bring about recovery.

In the treatments he prescribed, Hippocrates was very sensible, pragmatic and flexible in his approach, favoring conservatism and moderation over radical or extreme measures.  Bloodletting, which was much abused at other times in medicine's history, was used only rarely by Hippocrates, and even then, only applied conservatively.

Hippocrates placed great emphasis on strengthening and building up the body's inherent resistance to disease.  For this, he prescribed diet, gymnastics, exercise, massage, hydrotherapy and sea bathing.

Hippocrates was a great believer in dietary measures in the treatment of disease.  He prescribed a very slender, light diet during the crisis stage of an acute illness, and a liquid diet during the treatment of fevers and wounds.  

Hippocratic medicine was constitutionally based, so its approach to diagnosis and treatment was quite flexible.  As a holistic healing system, Hippocratic medicine treated the patient, and not just the disease.

Hippocrates was the first physician to systematically classify diseases based on points of similarity and contrast between them.  He virtually originated the disciplines of etiology and pathology.  By systematically classifying diseases, Hippocrates placed their diagnosis and treatment on a sounder footing.

The Hippocratic Corpus

The Hippocratic Corpus is a collection of over 60 works.  Although all of them are attributed to Hippocrates, the Corpus is of a heterogenous character, and many, if not most, of its works may actually have been written by his students.

Still, we can be fairly certain that Hippocrates actually did author many books in the Corpus, including many original, groundbreaking works.

These include:
Airs, Waters and Places - the first major work on medical meteorology, climatology, geography and anthropology.
Aphorisms - a collection of wise, pithy sayings giving advice on practical matters of diet, prognosis and therapeutics.
Ancient Medicine - a defense of the empirical study of medicine against one biased by preliminary axioms and assumptions.  Also deals with the Four Humors.

The Legacy of Hippocrates

Hippocrates was the personification of the ideal physician - wise, caring, compassionate, and honest.  His Hippocratic Oath, which set high ethical standards for the practice of medicine, is his most remembered achievement.  His exemplary life has been a constant and enduring source of inspiration for doctors and healers down through the ages.

The Hippocratic Oath

Contrary to popular myth, the phrase "First do no harm" (Latin: Primum non nocere)) is not part of the Hippocratic oath. Strictly speaking, the phrase does not appear in the oath, though an equivalent phrase is in Epidemics, Book I, of the Hippocratic school: "Practise two things in your dealings with disease: either help or do not harm the patient".  The exact phrase may have originated with the 19th-century surgeon Thomas Inman.

There were several modifications to the oath, with a significant revision in 1948 by the World Medical Association (WMA) called the Declaration of Geneva.  During post World War II and immediately after its foundation, the WMA showed concern over the state of medical ethics in general and over the world. The WMA took up the responsibility for setting ethical guidelines for the world physicians. It noted that in those years the custom of medical schools to administer an oath to its doctors upon graduation or receiving a license to practice medicine had fallen into disuse or become a mere formality". In Germany during the Third Reich, medical students did not take the Hippocratic Oath, although they knew the ethic of "nil nocere" - do no harm.

In the 1960s, the Hippocratic Oath was changed to require "utmost respect for human life from its beginning", making it a more secular obligation, not to be taken in the presence of God or any gods, but before only other people. When Louis Lasanga, Academic Dean of the School of Medicine at Tufts University, rewrote the Oath in 1964, omitted the prayer, and that version has been widely accepted and is still in use today by many medical schools.

Following are the Classic (original) version of the Oath, and the modern version resulting from the Lasanga revisions in 1964.  Note in the original version content in red represents sections altered in the modern version.

The Hippocratic Oath (Classic Version)

I swear by Apollo the 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, who has instructed me and to pupils who have signed the covenant and have taken the oath according to medical law, but to no one else.

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

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 favor 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 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 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 honored with fame among all men for all time to come; if I transgress it and swear falsely, may the opposite of all this be my lot.

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 patient'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.

The Modern Version, written in 1964 by Louis Lasagna, Academic Dean of the School of Medicine at Tufts University, is used in many medical schools today.

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The Bill of Rights and Responsibilities of the News Media

The press, or news media, are protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America.

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

This is the Code of Ethics used to guide the news media in the exercise of their work.  Do you think they are following their own Code of Ethics?

Society of Professional JournalistsImproving and protecting journalism since 1909

SPJ Code of Ethics

Preamble

Members of the Society of Professional Journalists believe that public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy. Ethical journalism strives to ensure the free exchange of information that is accurate, fair and thorough. An ethical journalist acts with integrity.

The Society declares these four principles as the foundation of ethical journalism and encourages their use in its practice by all people in all media.

Seek Truth and Report It

Ethical journalism should be accurate and fair. Journalists should

be honest and courageous in gathering, reporting and interpreting

information.

Journalists should:

Take responsibility for the accuracy of their work. Verify information before

releasing it. Use original sources whenever possible.

Remember that neither speed nor format excuses inaccuracy.

Provide context. Take special care not to misrepresent or oversimplify in

promoting, previewing or summarizing a story.

Gather, update and correct information throughout the life of a news story.

Be cautious when making promises, but keep the promises they make.

Identify sources clearly. The public is entitled to as much information as possible

to judge the reliability and motivations of sources.

Consider sources’ motives before promising anonymity. Reserve anonymity for

sources who may face danger, retribution or other harm, and have information

that cannot be obtained elsewhere. Explain why anonymity was granted.

Diligently seek subjects of news coverage to allow them to respond to criticism

or allegations of wrongdoing.

Avoid undercover or other surreptitious methods of gathering information

unless traditional, open methods will not yield information vital to the public.

Be vigilant and courageous about holding those with power accountable.

Give voice to the voiceless.

Support the open and civil exchange of views, even views they find repugnant.

Recognize a special obligation to serve as watchdogs over public affairs and

government. Seek to ensure that the public’s business is conducted in the

open, and that public records are open to all.

Provide access to source material when it is relevant and appropriate.

Boldly tell the story of the diversity and magnitude of the human experience.

Seek sources whose voices we seldom hear.

Avoid stereotyping. Journalists should examine the ways their values and

experiences may shape their reporting.

Label advocacy and commentary.

Never deliberately distort facts or context, including visual information.

Clearly label illustrations and re-enactments.

Never plagiarize. Always attribute.

Minimize Harm

Ethical journalism treats sources, subjects, colleagues and members of

the public as human beings deserving of respect.

Journalists should:

Balance the public’s need for information against potential harm or discomfort.

Pursuit of the news is not a license for arrogance or undue intrusiveness.

Show compassion for those who may be affected by news coverage. Use

heightened sensitivity when dealing with juveniles, victims of sex crimes,

and sources or subjects who are inexperienced or unable to give consent.

Consider cultural differences in approach and treatment.

Recognize that legal access to information differs from an ethical justification

to publish or broadcast.

Realize that private people have a greater right to control information about

themselves than public figures and others who seek power, influence or

attention. Weigh the consequences of publishing or broadcasting personal

information.

Avoid pandering to lurid curiosity, even if others do.

Balance a suspect’s right to a fair trial with the public’s right to know. Consider

the implications of identifying criminal suspects before they face legal charges.

Consider the long-term implications of the extended reach and permanence of

publication. Provide updated and more complete information as appropriate.

Act Independently

The highest and primary obligation of ethical journalism is to serve

the public.

Journalists should:

Avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived. Disclose unavoidable conflicts.

Refuse gifts, favors, fees, free travel and special treatment, and avoid political

and other outside activities that may compromise integrity or impartiality,

or may damage credibility.

Be wary of sources offering information for favors or money; do not pay for

access to news. Identify content provided by outside sources, whether paid

or not.

Deny favored treatment to advertisers, donors or any other special interests,

and resist internal and external pressure to influence coverage.

Distinguish news from advertising and shun hybrids that blur the lines

between the two. Prominently label sponsored content.

Be Accountable and Transparent

Ethical journalism means taking responsibility for one's work and

explaining one’s decisions to the public.

Journalists should:

Explain ethical choices and processes to audiences. Encourage a civil

dialogue with the public about journalistic practices, coverage and news

content.

Respond quickly to questions about accuracy, clarity and fairness.

Acknowledge mistakes and correct them promptly and prominently. Explain

corrections and clarifications carefully and clearly.

Expose unethical conduct in journalism, including within their organizations.

Abide by the same high standards they expect of others.

The SPJ Code of Ethics is a statement of abiding principles supported by additional explanations and position papers (at spj.org) that address changing journalistic practices.

It is not a set of rules, rather a guide that encourages all who engage in journalism to take responsibility for the information they provide, regardless of medium. The code should be read as a whole; individual principles should not be taken out of context. It is not, nor can it be under the First Amendment, legally enforceable.

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Health Care – Hope and Change or Crash and Burn? Can we fix what has been broken or time to start anew?

Hey Congress how about real health care reform for a change?

Did you ever stop to think, “maybe we got it all wrong?”

Healthcare in America, call it Medicare, Obamacare, Trump Care, Congress Care, Illegal Immigrant Care, or Welfare Care, whatever you prefer.  It might be the greatest hypocrisy in modern politics, and certainly the greatest insult to the revered Hippocratic Oath, the sorry state of our health, and health care system.

It is not just broken, it is disappearing before our very eyes into the mists of political gobble-de-gook.  Sinking into quicksand.  It is time to pull the plug.  Somewhere in our storied history once upon a time not all that long ago someone determined our healthcare system had enormous profit potential.

Now health care in America really sucks.  That is what the system gave us when the money mongers took control and profits became the new standard.  We have the most expensive healthcare in the world, yet it ranks mediocre in performance at best.  Of course, mediocre is the result achieved by accepting that what we have got is good enough.

Truth is, it is not good enough!

Being “good enough” was never a part of the American Dream for our nation, or the peoples in that nation.  People came to America to help make the world a much nicer place for everyone.  They came here for freedom, truth, protection, diversity, religious tolerance, and economic opportunity, among other reasons.  It was quite a noble statement of the mission of this new nation in the New World back in 1776.

We were up to the challenge.  The American spirit was a powerful force for freedom and even exceptionalism.  It carried us through the Revolution where we earned our sovereignty down the barrel of a gun.

It powered us again in the Civil War and helped us heal the wounds of a bitterly House divided.  In the Great War (World War I) and the War to End All Wars (World War II) it carried us toward our destiny of becoming the most dominant force in the world.

We did too.

Then, we hit a plateau.  With the eventual fall of the Soviet Union (December 25, 1991) we were number one in just about everything.  For the first time in our history, we had no competition for leadership of the world.  It has now been about twenty-seven years since we came to dominate the world as the only viable super-power.

Americans seem to get a little soft when they do not have formidable competition.  Suddenly we started to believe all those good things people said about us, and realized it was okay to win.  It was only natural for winners to want to keep on winning, we might just be as great as others say.

Well, that leads to a false sense of self-confidence, we get lax in our diligence, and lethargic in our response when bad things happen around us.  Yet, if everything was so good in our lives, why did the Cold War happen.  Then came Korea and Vietnam wars, with over 58,000 killed in that jungle skirmish.  The questions go on, and on, and on.

It was also a time of miraculous medical breakthroughs in treatment and in prescription drugs, in replacing limbs and organs, rebuilding hearts, and rewiring brains.  The transformation of the medical industry had begun.  From now on the motto of Wall Street would be “Balance sheets and profit Margins, not public health and public safety.

The financial vultures dug up every avenue of profit possible in the medical universe, and put them all in play.  What a vast and diverse range of players entered the game.  Profits could be squeezed out of doctors and hospital services, if the paradigm changed.  Give them rapidly changing new services for all kinds of new forms of diseases, and treatments.

Suddenly health insurance companies exploded on the scene to help you pay the cost of those new services when you get sick.  Then reinsurance companies were needed to prop up the insurance companies.  Public and private health insurance programs exploded. So, did the multitude of integrated steps to achieve superior quality.

Sophisticated testing laboratories with the most advanced technology and toys were needed to keep up with the speed of the changes.  Then there were clinics, emergency rooms, rehab center, and trauma unit needed to support the new treatment methods.

The tentacles of the medical community reach far and wide, but the body and brain for all those tentacles resides on Wall Street, where gold rules.  Here the Captains of Commerce toast the minions of the powerful puppet masters of the world, those few remaining bloodlines who control all.

Which is more important, Capitalism or Democracy?

Odd that a force as powerful as Capitalism and dominant in world affairs is not mentioned in our own founding documents, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution.  So, what does that have to do with medical services today?  Today we have achieved the most expensive health care in the world as a result of Capitalism conquering the medical world.  Still our quality of service sucks.

To add insult to injury, health care in America does not even include eye care or tooth care.  What is that all about?  The two medical problems that almost everyone experiences and they do not even count as medical procedures?  Congress let them get away with that and we are left paying the bills.

  

Some leadership in our nations’ capitol.

What we have today, whether under Obama or Trump, are the most expensive services possible to assure you have the latest and greatest diagnostic and treatment equipment in existence.  There are new diseases discovered nearly every week while magically, prescription drug medicine for the new diseases is available at nearly the same time.

Bio-engineering has brought you artificial limbs, replacement parts for organs, even replacement organs.  Of course, that means more antibiotics, to keep you well, and prescription drugs, to keep you going.  All the new services, diseases, drugs, and diagnostics along with the clinics, rehab centers, hospitals, hospices, assisted living, retirement living centers, offices, and pharmacies made medicine and the prolonged treatment of patients the fastest growing profit centers in capitalism.

All of these profit centers are necessary for the profiteers to get their tentacles beyond your checking account, and beyond your health insurance, to your retirement funds and remaining assets such as property, in other words, they are now into all parts of your nest egg.  Often the result is bleeding your assets dry.

Did I mention the health care lobbyists throwing big bucks at the doctors and politicians desperate to get a few bucks for their campaigns?  All of these factors combined to feed the new and massive profit centers of medicine and Wall Street fell in lock step to protect this new and ever-expanding profit center extravaganza.

We remain sicker than ever, more out-of-shape if not downright obese, more dependent on prescription drugs, and more willing to accept chronic pain as long as big pharma could provide the prescription pain relief.  Now depression and mild altering prescriptions have opened the floodgates to prescription drug addiction (opioids) becoming the leading cause of heroin addiction.

Our healthcare system is designed to manage our health maintenance, not cure our health issues.  An entire industry has developed to provide permanent dietary supplements to keep us addicted to even the more harmless revenue streams as well.  We are led to believe that our immune system will never work without the endless bottles of dietary supplements.

It does not matter if we choose to support the Obama or Trump medical solution, or the Democrat or Republican solution, the politicians and the people are slaves to a system that cannot and will not work.

We deserve a system that makes us healthy and keeps us healthy, not makes it more comfortable to stay sick.  Doctors should be given an incentive to heal patients, not send them on an endless round of referrals throughout the failed health care system.

Western Medicine in America is a convoluted maze of conflicts of interest, ethical violations, black market subsidies, off the books prescription sales, over-prescribing and under-performing throughout the world’s most expensive health program.

At the same time the pharmaceutical industry, which first cooped Obama and now seems to have the entire Congress at their beck and call, also used every trick in the book to discredit and stop the use of folk medicine, Chinese traditional medicine, Druid herbology, Greek and Egyptian treatments for diseases that were successfully used for thousands of years before western medicine ever existed.  

Most of those incredibly successful techniques are as valid today as when they were popular but they are not profitable today.

Finally, there is incredible progress made by Tesla and Raymond Rife, to mention just two people in the use of frequency machines to analyze the human boy, isolate diseases, and use the proper frequency to destroy them.  They were forced out of the market between 80 and 100 years ago when there were clinics coast-to-coast curing people.

Today the work by Tesla and Rife and others is finally being brought back, but far from the level it achieved more than half a century ago.  It is the key to proper nutrition, becoming health consciousness, and using medicine to rebuild the immune systems and break the dependence on our western medical system.  The rest of what we need is in the mind.

Diet does not work without food, fasting, and prayer or meditation.  Medical care does not work without proper diet, fitness, and health consciousness.  None of it works without freeing your mind of addiction, freeing your body of unhealthy junk, treating your body as a temple, and kicking yourself in the ass for allowing something as important as your personal health and happiness to be dictated by others.

We do not need a broken system patched up yet again, we need a viable alternative to what does not work.  That alternative is to embrace all the wonderful gifts God gave us in terms of herbs, food, awareness, and prayer, and do what makes sense for us, not Wall Street.

Healthy people are the only way to drive down health care costs and nothing being considered by our esteemed Congress, no matter what the blabber-mouths say, promise or claim, makes sense.  Send a little love to Washington along with a little light and maybe the dark mist that currently shrouds our nation’s capital and stunts their creative actions might just begin to be lifted.

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