The Declaration of Geneva

National medical associations began planning an international body at the British Medical Association's London headquarters in 1944, and the World Medical Association was founded in Paris on 18 September 1947. Its members found that the custom of giving new doctors an oath at graduation had fallen into disuse or become a formality. A study committee gathered the oaths and promises used in member countries and spent two years drafting a modern wording of the oath of Hippocrates. The work followed the wartime abuses committed by physicians under the Nazi regime.

The second General Assembly, first planned for Prague, met in Geneva in September 1948, adopted the text and named it the Declaration of Geneva. A doctor admitted to the profession pledged to devote his life to the service of humanity, to make the health of the patient his first consideration, to keep the secrets confided to him, and not to let religion, nationality, race, party politics or social standing come between his duty and his patient. He promised the utmost respect for human life from the time of conception and, even under threat, not to use medical knowledge against the laws of humanity.

The same assembly received a report on war crimes and medicine, which led to an International Code of Medical Ethics. Adopted in London in October 1949, it included the text of the declaration and told doctors to observe it.

The declaration was amended in 1968, 1983, 1994 and 2017, with editorial revisions in 2005 and 2006. By 1983 respect for human life was "from its beginning", and by 2005 the qualifier was gone. Secrets were to be kept even after the patient's death, colleagues became sisters and brothers, and the list of factors that must not intrude grew to include age, disease or disability, gender and sexual orientation. The 2017 revision, adopted in Chicago, added respect for the patient's autonomy and dignity and a promise that physicians would attend to their own health, well-being and abilities.

A survey of member associations published in 2018 found the declaration rarely used as an oath, though physicians' oaths were widespread; it was often included in professional codes of conduct or used as a point of reference. It was legally binding in professional regulations or professional law in 6 of 37 countries, under general law in 2, and not binding in 23.