Hippocratic Oath

Unlike civilian physicians, military physicians have ethical obligations to their patients, the Hippocratic Oath and military guidelines. Those competing interests often weigh heavy on physicians when placed in such a quandary. They may have to decide whom to render treatment to or for whom to reserve medical resources. Therein lies the dual loyalty…

-Hippocrates. “With little knowledge of his life experiences, historians rely on a biography written some 500 years after his death by another Greek physician, Soranus, which was drawn from legend and a collection of medical writings commonly called the Hippocratic Corpus” (Timmons, 2016) Hippocrates is credited with being the first person to believe that illnesses and diseases were caused by natural and environmental factors, i.e. diet and living habits, and not by punishment of the Gods. He…

in Greece: the Hippocratic Oath. The Hippocratic Oath was developed by Hippocrates, it was an oath where physicians swore to uphold specific ethical standards, or risk losing their license and respect. Anyone learning to become a doctor would recite: “Into whatever homes I go, I will enter them for the benefit of the sick, avoiding any voluntary act of impropriety or corruption, including the seduction of women or men, whether they are free men or slaves (Hippocratic Oath).” This oath was the…

be illegal for a doctor to administer euthanasia because it goes against the Hippocratic Oath, eradicates any chances of consensual research and testing, and defies the principle that a human life is priceless. It would be unethical to allow people to end their own lives if treatment is still possible, as this would go against the principle of “first, do no harm”, as stated by the Hippocratic Oath. The Hippocratic Oath is a pledge originally written in the 5th Century that contains the moral…

The Hippocratic Oath was founded in the 5th century but was later modified to Florence Nightingale Pledge in 1893 to guide professionals in the nursing field. The Nightingale Pledge established the ethical principles and standards nurses should follow in their profession. As a result, nursing bodies have used the Hippocratic Oath and Nightingale Pledge to further develop guidelines and although the Nightingale Pledge remains at the core of the nursing practices and ethics. Since decision making…

Issue Question: Should it be legal for doctors to assist patient in committing suicide? Controversy Section: For many years, doctor assisted suicide has been a well known controversy, but in the last decade it has become an even more debatable topic. Doctor assisted suicide is the act of the patient self administering the means of death that is provided to them by a doctor. In order for a patient to receive the lethal dose of medication to end their own life, they must request medication from…

Euthanasia is an immoral act for doctors. The Hippocratic Oath (translated by Michael J. North, M.S., M.S.L.S., Head of Rare Books & Early Manuscripts in the History and Medicine Division at the U.S. National Library of Medicine) enlightens us: “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 pessary to cause an abortion.” The sanctity of life enshrined in the words of this pivotal oath serve as the moral guide for the…

I have chosen an article from the Journal of Health and Social Behavior entitled Revisiting the Behavioral Model and Access to Medical Care: Does it Matter? The main subject of this article is to review the model of health services’ use that has dominated in the author’s career. The theoretical approach is knowledge possessed by the author of the model used in his line of work and a question of if any model matters more than another. The data-collection technique used was research of the model…

When the word suicide is used, most people think of the gruesome gun to the head or overdose on medication. Everyone is quick to assume an act of suicide is somebody doing harm to his or herself. Not many people think of suicide as being something that a physician would help assist with, but it has definitely become a controversy over the years. Physician-assisted suicide is when a physician receives consent from a terminally ill patient to administer drugs that will eventually kill them. Before…

The practice of euthanasia provides people affected by an incurable illness with an alternative route to retaining control over their life and should be supported by legal and medical justifications. As a practice, euthanasia, also known as mercy killing, results in the painless death of a patient afflicted with an incurable, painful disease or permanent coma to prevent the continuous suffering of said patient. In modern society, euthanasia is controversial as it calls the ethics of permitting…