By: Ahmed ELNAHAS – Montopoli, June 18th 2013.
The following is the first English translation of the original text you see here above:
“….all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will fulfill according to my ability and judgment this oath and this covenant:
To hold him who has taught me this art as equal to my parents and to live my life in partnership with him, and if he is in need of money to give him a share of mine, and to regard his offspring as equal to my brothers in male lineage and to teach them this art — if they desire to learn it — without fee and covenant; to give a share of precepts and oral instruction and all the other learning to my sons and to the sons of him who has instructed me and to pupils who have signed the covenant and have taken an oath according to the medical law, but to no one else.
I will apply dietetic measures for the benefit of the sick according to my ability and judgment; I will keep them from harm and injustice.
I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody if asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Similarly I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy. In purity and holiness I will guard my life and my art.
I will not use the knife, not even on sufferers from stone, but will withdraw in favor of such men as are engaged in this work.
Whatever houses I may visit, I will come for the benefit of the sick, remaining free of all intentional injustice, of all mischief and in particular of sexual relations with both female and male persons, be they free or slaves.
What I may see or hear in the course of the treatment or even outside of the treatment in regard to the life of men, which on no account one must spread abroad, I will keep to myself holding such things shameful to be spoken about.
If I fulfill this path and do not violate it, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and art, being honored with fame among all men for all time to come; if I transgress it and swear falsely, may the opposite of all this be my lot.”
The Oath has been modified multiple times, in several different countries. However, the vast majority of oaths or declarations sworn have been heavily modified and modernised. In a 1989 survey of 126 US medical schools, only three reported usage of the original oath. In France, it is common for new medical graduates to sign a written oath. While there is currently no legal obligation for medical students to swear an oath upon graduating, 98% of American medical students swear some form of oath, while only 50% of British medical students do.
It has been suggested by Sir Joseph Rotblat, in his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995, that a similar oath should be undertaken by scientists: a Hippocratic Oath for Scientists.
If the ill healers have modified their mission vow and altered their professional promises for sheer private interests; I think that we shouldn’t marvel to the fact that politicians lie all the time, and that our rulers cannot live up to the Constitutional Oath they have pronounced before God, and will not keep the bright promises they have publicly vowed to undertake and fulfill.
As if the value of an Oath has been reduced to a miserable fraudulent tool used by the daring to con the bearing.
We need to revive the true binding values of the term Oath, and make them the standard parameters by which to evaluate the performance of any leader, teacher, physician, politician, public servant, pilot, businessman, artisan, technician, traders…etc; because each and every one of them have made an oath.. And we must know every word of each one of them, otherwise we will continue to grope in the dark.
Pass On The Word.
No comments:
Post a Comment