The Hippocratic Oath is a time-honoured and widely known treatise on medical ethics and an expression of ideal conduct for the physician. The Oath, is an ancient writing attributed to the “father of medicine” Hippocrates, but if he composed it can neither be affirmed nor denied. [3]
Dr Louis Lasagna, a physician at Johns Hopkins University, in 1964 revised the original oath to accommodate the practice of abortions & surgeries that were becoming commonplace. [1, 2]
Although it is stated that doctors swear the Hippocratic Oath which is said to incorparate the phrase “first do no harm”, this is not directly stated and was never part of “The Oath”, but is rather found in Hippocrates essay “Of the epidemics“. In Book I, Section II, Second Constitution (5) it reads “with regard to disease…to do good or to do no harm”.
According to a 1989 survey, barely half of US medical schools used any form of the Hippocratic Oath and only 2% used the original. By 2011 a study found various forms used, and have ethical issues missing.
Australia: A Courier Mail article in February 2002 reports on an AMJ article that found only one of 12 medical schools in Australia used the Hippocratic oath, albeit modified. Yet in 2006 the AMA indicates the Hippocratic oath is still being used, and will now be said along side The Declaration of Geneva.
Jan 2024 Australia want return of oath.