What Is The Hippocratic Oath?

One of the core principles of the entire medical world, from practising doctors to pharmaceutical manufacturers to life sciences marketing dates back to the earliest days of structured medicine.

The Hippocratic Oath, named after the Greek Doctor Hippocrates of Kos who was believed for a long time to have written it, is the earliest known statement of medical ethics, and whilst it has been since superseded by more formal ethics boards, establishes principles that are still followed today.

It was originally written at some point between 500BC and 200BC, although the first partial fragments of the text date back to 275AD and the oldest full version to the 11th Century.

Interestingly, the line most commonly associated with the Oath, “primum non nocere” (“first, do no harm”), does not appear in the original oath, although very similar lines are in the original text, such as “I will abstain from all intentional wrongdoing and harm”.

This aspect is seen to be the first core rule of medicine that underpins the behaviour of all doctors and medical practice. Medical intervention can in some cases be dangerous and risky for a patient, and it is better to avoid intervening in cases where it can do more harm than good.

The oath’s most commonly cited version provides the example of not providing poisons to people when asked to do so or to use a knife to help people suffering from kidney stones, given the risks involved in primitive surgery.

As well as this, the original oath bearer must hold their teacher equal to their parents, share their money when they are in need and teach medicine to their family if they want to learn it for free, and teach only their family, their teacher’s family and other medical students who have taken the Oath.

Beyond this, the Oath also demands equality of treatment. They must not harm anyone, regardless of gender or status, and must not divulge the secrets of anything they see or hear whilst practising medicine.

These core principles are still felt in the world of medical ethics today and shaped the Declaration of Geneva used by many doctors to this day.