The Oath of Hippocrates

(And no Cynthia, that is not a large container in which to transport large water-loving mammals with big teeth...)

Duties to my teacher:
To regard my teacher in this art as equal to my parents, to make him my partner in my livelihood, and, when he is in need of money, to share mine with him; to consider his offspring as equal to my brothers; to teach them this art, if they require to learn it. without fee or indenture; and to imaprt precept, oral instruction, and all the other learning, to my sons, to the sons of my teacher, and to pupils who have signed the indenture and sworn obedience to the physicians' law, but to none other.

As a physician, Hippocrates (Greece, ca. 460BC - ca. 370BC) played a great role in dispelling superstitions regarding medical conditions. He philosophically separated medicine from religion, rejecting the previously held belief that illness was punishment from the gods for displeasing them. Despite still being a far cry from modern medicine, Hippocrates nevertheless introduced a set of ethical guidelines in the form of an oath to be taken by any physician trained under auspices of the Hippocratic school of medicine.

Duties to patients:
I will use treatment to help the sick according to my ability and judgement, but will never use it to injure or wrong them.
"With great power comes great responsibility" (a la Star Wars)

I will not give poison to anyone, though asked to do so, nor will I suggest such a plan. Similarly, I will not give a pessary to a woman to cause abortion. But in purity and holiness I will guard my life and my art.
"All life is sacred, preserving life is greatest priority"

I will not use the knife either on sufferers [...], but will give place to those such as are craftsmen therein.
"Leave certain work to the experts; humility"

Into whatsoever house I enter, I will do so to help the sick, keeping myself free from all intentional wrong-doing and harm, especially from fornication with woman or man, bound or free.
(Well, he was Greek, afterall) "Integrity; trust between patient & physician"

Whatsoever in the course of practice I see or hear [...], I will not divulge, but consider such things to be holy secrets.
"Confidentiality"

As you can see, I've added my own interpretation of each part of the oath. However, this is my (rather uninformed) interpretation and if anyone wishes to raise any points, I'd love to discuss it further :-)

Obviously the modern version and interpretation of this oath are strongly affected by the the core philosophical assumptions of our time, as well as our contextual and religious perspectives. This philosophical legacy of Hippocrates raises an important issue in my mind: Hippocrates harked from a pagan, or polytheistic, society. The extent to which modern religions initially drew from pagan precepts is debatable, but nevertheless one message is universal: displease your deity = you get punished.

What combination of deities Hippocrates was attempting to please with his ethical code of honour can only be speculated. However, it has filtered through over 2000 years of progress in the fields of anatomy, physiology and psychology, giving millenia of physicians a standard of practice to adhere to: a moral responsibility for the well-being of their patients. If only the message would filter through to other groups of individuals with power of the lives of others.