Posted on 12/11/2007 8:20:31 PM PST by bruinbirdman
Senior medical figures in Italy are campaigning to scrap the Hippocratic Oath for doctors on the ground that the passages forbidding abortion and euthanasia are outdated.
Giorgio Iannetti, a professor of surgery at Rome University, said that the oath, which is read out by medical students when they graduate, must either be abolished or “radically modified”.
“There are passages which are no longer relevant to our times and which newly qualified doctors know in advance they will not be able to respect,” Professor Iannetti told a medical conference in Rome.
The oath, written by Hippocrates, the Greek father of medicine, in the 4th century BC, obliges doctors to heal the sick “according to my ability and judgment” and to “keep them from harm and injustice”. However, a new doctor also swears to “neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Similarly I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy.”
Abortion was legalised in Italy in 1978, a decision that was confirmed by referendum three years later, despite opposition from the Vatican. Euthanasia — also vehemently opposed by the Church — remains banned, but recent high-profile cases involving the terminally ill have provoked a debate on whether Italy should follow the example of the Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland and legalise it.
Carlo Flamigni, a professor of gynaecology and obstetrics at Bologna University, said that he refused to take the Hippocratic Oath when he graduated in 1958. Fernando Aiuti, professor of immunology at Rome University, told Corriere della Sera that some of his students had told him they disagreed with it, “and they have a point”.
Giuseppe Remuzzi, professor of neurology at Bergamo University, noted that in Britain The Lancet had proposed an alternative version five years ago. The oath has already been modified in many Western medical schools.
However, Luigi Frati, head of surgery at Rome University, argued that the original oath “reminds new doctors of certain fundamental concepts . . . they feel they belong to a scientific community with a long tradition”. Mauro Moroni, professor of infectious diseases at Milan University, said that he gave his students the oath “written on parchment in the original Greek. Some values never change”.
They can change it to the Hypocratic Oath.
Or the Hypocritic Oath
Stupid. I wonder how the Pope feels about that?
doctors have changed in the last decades and
the hyppocratic oath no longer belongs to them.
LOL, that too!
Might work in Italy; before they ‘revise’ the Hippocratic Oath in the United States to allow them to euthanize my wife or one of my sisters, they had better eliminate all of the loose guns laying around everywhere (otherwise the doctors might be the ones getting euthanized)...
Related thread:
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) “requests that pro-life doctors move their practices closer to abortion businesses so women can have a shorter drive to get an abortion when their physicians refuse to perform or refer for one.”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1938140/posts
Make way for Universal Health Care and no malpractice suits. It will be something like ... “I can do no wrong and no one can say I did. I will practice and prescribe medicine based on a patients ability to pay or the way I feel on a given day.”
It was outdated with respect to European values a while back, too. I read about it in history class. They never did catch all those guys.
Abortionist gave up their oath decades ago.
I cant help but think of
Terri Shivo (forgive the spelling)
I remember when the judge said “ok” to pulling the plug.
My first thought was “government should not be in charge of determining life,death and medical care. Such thinks should always be out of the realm of gov paper pushers and poli-tutes!”
I can see it now
aunt Jane doe is sick.
hospital says its terminal and want to pull da plug.
family protest
judge takes gov side
law enforcement is used to keep the family from stoping the court order.
Newspapers report david beckum almost scored a goal but got hurt again and is out for the season with a broken toenail.
imagin your health care being run by the lady at the DMV and nancy palosi...*cringe*
That’s another nail in Europe’s coffin.
Ah yes, if doing the right thing is hard, lower your standards.
Not a pretty picture . . .
Maybe that Colorado governor guy, what's his name, "Lead the Lamb to Slaughter", can be Hillary's Surgeon General. He had an idea about how to keep health costs down. Didn't he?
yitbos
Calling Dr. Dracula!!! Calling Dr. Dracula!!!
Clean up bloody mess left by abortion...
As I recall, it was something along the line of "You old farts have a duty to die."
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