Modern Hippocratic Oath

Hippocratic Oath—Modern Version

Upon graduation, many medical students take a modern version of the oath written by Louis Lasagna in 1964.

 

Order (memorize)	Phrase (memorize)
1	I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:
2a	I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk,
2b	and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.
3a	I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures [that] are required,
3b	avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism.
4a	I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science,
4b	and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug.
5a	I will not be ashamed to say "I know not,"
5b	nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient's recovery.
6a	I will respect the privacy of my patients,
6b	for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know.
6c	Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death.
6d	If it is given me to save a life, all thanks.
6e	But it may also be within my power to take a life;
6f	this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty.
6g	Above all, I must not play at God.
7a	I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart,
7b	a cancerous growth, but a sick human being,
7c	whose illness may affect the person's family and economic stability.
7d	My responsibility includes these related problems,
7e	if I am to care adequately for the sick.
8a	I will prevent disease whenever I can,
8b	for prevention is preferable to cure.
9a	I will remember that I remain a member of society,
9b	with special obligations to all my fellow human beings,
9c	those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.
10a	If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art,
10b	respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter.
10c	May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling
10d	and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help.

 

Reference: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/doctors/oath_modern.html