I swear by Apollo Physician and Asclepius and Hygieia and Panaceia and all
the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will fulfil
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 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 who 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 fulfil this oath 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.
Translation from the Greek by Ludwig Edelstein.
From The Hippocratic Oath:
Text, Translation, and Interpretation, by Ludwig Edelstein.
Baltimore: Johns
Hopkins Press, 1943.
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