The Hippocratic Oath

The oath opens with a roll call of gods: Apollo the physician, Asclepius, Hygieia and Panacea. The new physician swore by them to keep its terms, and the first terms concern his teacher. He promised to hold the man who taught him medicine as dear as his parents, to share his living with him when needed, to teach the teacher's sons without fee, and to pass the art on only to his own sons, his teacher's sons and pupils who had taken the same oath.

The duties to the sick come next. He would prescribe regimens for the benefit of patients and do them no harm or injustice. He would give no lethal drug to anyone who asked for one, nor advise it, and would not give a woman a pessary to cause abortion. Cutting for stones he would leave to those trained in that craft. He would enter a house only for the good of the sick, with no seduction of anyone in it, free or slave, and whatever he saw or heard in patients' lives he would keep secret.

Tradition credits the oath to Hippocrates, but its author is unknown, and the date usually given, about 400 BCE, is an estimate. The National Library of Medicine suggests that its strict loyalty clauses may date from the time when training was first opened to students from outside the Asclepiads of Cos, the families who first practiced Hippocratic medicine.

Over the centuries the text was rewritten many times to suit the values of different cultures. It does not contain the phrase "first, do no harm", although that line is often credited to it. Most modern medical schools do not require the oath, though some use modern versions of it.