希波克拉底誓言是医学道德的持久标志,纳粹德国的医生援引它来抗议安乐死,系统地杀害弱小或生病的儿童,患有不治之症的人,住院罪犯(适用于同性恋者的类别),老年病人,长期病人,不是德国血统的患者(犹太人和罗马人),和残疾人。1945年纽伦堡医学审判的几位专家证人也引用了谴责纳粹医生滥用人类研究对象的誓言。注意到这些调用,1947年,创立世界医学协会的医生对希波克拉底誓言进行了现代化改造,以向未来的医学生传达其基本原则:使病人受益,不伤害他们,不违反保密规定,不公正地对待病人,不论其性别或社会地位。这篇文章提供了一个历史上准确的阅读誓言的奇怪的段落,以表明它不禁止堕胎,安乐死(临终医疗援助),或手术。文章还认为,宣誓宣誓仍然是教导临床医生他们的角色责任的重要资产,并且它的道德支持妇女的生殖健康保健的权利,并可以对风险资本家和营利性管理的挑战进行评估,这些管理优先考虑盈利能力,而不是为患者提供高质量的医疗保健。
The Hippocratic oath is such an enduring icon of medical morality that physicians in Nazi Germany invoked it to protest Euthanasie, the systematized killing of weak or sick children, people with incurable diseases, hospitalized criminals (a category applicable to gays), geriatric patients, long-term patients, patients not of German blood (Jews and Romani), and people with disabilities. Several expert witnesses at the 1945 Nuremberg Medical Trial also cited the oath to condemn Nazi physicians\' abuse of human research subjects. Noting these invocations, in 1947 the physicians who founded the World Medical Association modernized the Hippocratic oath to convey to future medical students its foundational precepts: benefitting the sick, not harming them, not breaching confidentiality, and not treating patients unjustly, irrespective of their gender or social status. This article presents a historically accurate reading of the oath\'s strange-seeming passages to show that it does not prohibit abortion, euthanasia (medical aid in dying), or surgery. The article also contends that oath-swearing remains an important asset in teaching clinicians their role responsibilities, and that its ethics supports women\'s rights to reproductive health care and can valorize challenges to venture-capitalist and for-profit managements that prioritize profitability over providing quality health care for patients.