2000/01/01 by Thomas Tung · 1 citation
Health Professions · Medicine · #Ethics in medical practice #Ethics in Clinical Research #Medical Malpractice and Liability Issues #Hippocratic Oath #Oath #Medical ethics #Medicine #Judaism #Hebrew #Civilization #Law #Classics #Traditional medicine #Family medicine #Theology #History #Political science #Philosophy
paper · doi:10.1001/archsurg.135.1.10
openalex publication_date 2000/01/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
Ethics codes and guidelines date back to the origins of medicine in virtually all civilizations. Developed by the medical practitioners of each era and culture, oaths, prayers, and codes bound new physicians to the profession through agreement with the principles of conduct toward patients, colleagues, and society. Although less famous than the Hippocratic oath, the medical fraternities of ancient India, seventh-century China, and early Hebrew society each had medical oaths or codes that medical apprentices swore to on professional initiation. The Hippocratic oath, which graduating medical students swear to at more than 60% of US medical schools, is perhaps the most enduring medical oath of Western civilization. Other oaths commonly sworn to by new physicians include the Declaration of Geneva (a secular, updated form of the Hippocratic oath formulated by the World Medical Association, Ferney-Voltaire, France) and the Prayer of Moses Maimondes, developed by the 18th-century Jewish physician Marcus Herz.