While watching 3 Idiots, I heard this (Hippocratic Oath) term when Kareena said ” is hippocratic oath ne doctoron ki waat laga di”. Many of you might not know what a Hippocratic oath is and how it is related to doctors so let me tell you, it is basically an oath taken by medical students/doctors that they will do their best to help a patient who is in need of help under any circumstances. The oath is written in Greek by Hippocrates, the father of western medicine, in late 5th century BC.
Hippocratic Oath Text ::
I swear by Apollo Physician, by Asclepius, by Health, by Heal-all, and by all the Gods and Goddesses, making them witnesses, that I will carry out, according to my ability and judgment, this oath and this indenture.
To regard my teacher in this art as equal to my parents; to make him partner in my livelihood, and when he is in need of money to share mine with him, to consider his offspring equal to my brothers; to teach them this art; if they require to learn it, without fee or indenture; and to impart 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. I will use treatment to help the sick according to my ability and judgment, but I will never use it to injure or wrong them. 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 in holiness, I will guard my life and my art. I will not use the knife on sufferers from stone, but I will give place to such as are craftsmen therein.
Into whatsoever houses I enter, I will do so to help the sick, keeping myself free from all intentional wrongdoing and harm, especially from fornication with woman or man, bond or free.
Whatsoever in the course of practice I see or hear (or even outside my practice in social intercourse) that ought never to be published abroad, I will not divulge, but will consider such things to be holy secrets.
Now if I keep this oath and break it not, may I enjoy honor, in my life and art, among all men for all time; but if I transgress and forswear myself, may the opposite befall me.
Hippocratic Oath Manuscript ::
The Oath has been modified multiple times, in several different countries including India. However, one of the most significant revisions is the Declaration of Geneva, first drafted in 1948 by the World Medical Association. While there is currently no legal obligation for medical students to swear an oath upon graduating, a big percentage of Indian medical students swear some form of oath on graduation.