Do no harm?

A couple of years ago, I was talking to my doctor, when I casually brought up the subject of the Hippocratic Oath.
The Oath, invented by the ancient Greek philosopher and scientist Hippocrates, was one of the world's first statements of medical ethics. Students of the great man (who also invented the musical "octave," among other things) would be required to say that they would "first, do no harm."

I suggested (rather naively, in hindsight) that the oath was a great idea and wondered if modern medical practitioners should be required to recite something similar, at least as a symbolic gesture.

My doctor, to my surprise, said no: there were, in fact, many treatments which required human harm. Take radiation therapy, for example.  The thing which makes cancer so difficult to cure is that, unlike diseases caused by outside sources, the cancer cells are our own cells. Therefore, treating cancer requires, technically speaking, harming ourselves.

(There's a lesson here for politicians.... calling drug traffic or illegal immigration a "cancer" is admitting that the problem lies within ourselves.)


The Hippocratic Oath, while a classic statement of ethics, was actually too absolute and rigid to allow for modern medical practices.   Just a little food for thought...

Absolute truth was dealt another blow this week from an unusual source... the Pope, of all people, telling the faithful that condom use is "okay" under certain circumstances, such as the prevention of HIV... an amazing admission, and an incredible step forward, if anything comes of it....