Medicine's Promise
THE HIPPOCRATIC OATH

The Hippocratic Oath, attributed without certainty to the physician Hippocrates, dates back to the fourth century B.C. Its principles have been updated in recent versions, including the Declaration of Geneva of 1948 and the Oath of Lasagna of 1964. What follows here is the original text.

I swear by Apollo the healer, and Asclepius, and the Goddess of Health, and Panacea the All-healer, and all the gods and goddesses, calling them as witnesses, that I will keep this oath and stipulation according to my ability and judgement.

To pay the same respect I pay my parents to the one who has taught me this art;* to share my substances with him, and help him when he is in need, and consider his children like my own brothers and teach them this art, if they wish to learn it, without fee or contract; to impart knowledge of the precepts and lectures and all other instructions to my children, and to my teacher's children, and to students who have been sworn and apprenticed according to the law of medicine, and no other.

I will use a system that will benefit the sick, according to my ability and judgement, preserving them from anything that's deleterious or unjust.

I will not give deadly medicine to anyone if asked, nor will I lead anybody to that counsel. In the same way I will not give a woman destructive medicaments. I will conduct my life and my practice with purity and holiness.

I will not cut those suffering from the stone disease but I will leave this to men practicing that activity.

In all the houses I may enter, I will go in for the benefit of the sick and will avoid voluntary acts of injustice and destruction of any kind, including sexual acts to the bodies of women and men, both of the free and of the slaves.

Things I will see or hear in service, or even not in service, about the life of human beings - things that should never be divulged outside - I will keep silent about, treating them like unmentionable things.

If I fully observe this oath and do not violate it, may I enjoy the fruits of this life and this art and be highly considered among people for all the times.

If I transgress and violate this oath, may the opposite be true.

*The word in Greek is techne (τέχνη) which is usually translated as art or craft. It is a theory meant to produce results, whether the endeavor be the production of material objects or music or, indeed, medicine.

- Translated from the original Greek by Beatrice Basso