Even Hippocratic Oaths have gone Woke

Guest Post by Visayas Outpost

Sometime during late 2020 I remember feeling highly antagonistic about the breach of trust by the medical community during the fake pandemic.  A gift which keeps on giving, judging by all the Mask People in the far off corner of the world where I live…  That is crazy, I was told during a tense online forum exchange, you can’t jettison your trust in the entire medical establishment just because of Covid.  Truthfully the seeds of my distrust began decades ago, and Covid was just the final straw.  It feels like a common sentiment these days, although I didn’t conduct a poll.  Prominent medical voices such as Doctors Robert Malone, Peter McCullough, and Michael Yeadon have pointed out specifically how this breach of a sacred Social Contract will take at least a generation or more to rebuild.  It was bad enough that so much of medical care was already driven by insurance policies and Big Pharma.  But why were our own doctors so ineffective as backstops against a world gone insane?  This has been a mystery to me until now.

The medical oath recited by the 2022 UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine reads as follows:

Today I begin my journey to become a physician, a noble profession dedicated to the preservation of life and prevention of human suffering.  From this day forward I will be different, recognized as a healer.  I pledge myself to value human life.  I do not enter this pathway alone, society provides schools and faculty.  Teachers and peers assist in my education.  Important individuals assist me.  Among those attributes that are respected in physicians, I will treasure Compassion, Empathy and Honesty.  I will learn to preserve life by promoting health, and by treating individuals who are ill.  I will remember always that within each human life is a person who can feel pain as well as comfort and happiness.  I will treat my patient not only as an individual, but also as a member of a family and a society.  I will respect the dignity of everyone I help, and will hold private and in confidence all the patients report to me.  I will be honest with my patients and their families, with teachers and peers, and will never tolerate deception or fraud.  I will be honest with myself, to know my strengths and abilities, to recognize my limitations, and to seek help when necessary.  I will believe in myself, for it is that foundation that allows me to believe in others; from mentors and peers to patients, their families, and friends.  I will always strive to do my best, and work continually to improve my knowledge, abilities, and understanding.  I will be a teacher to those who follow me and to my patients and my community.  My relationship with patients and colleagues will not be affected by race, religion, nationality, financial or social status, or sexual orientation.  In being true to this oath I will preserve the finest traditions of medicine and science, and enjoy and conduct my life, my profession, and my art to the fullest.

It has quite the flourish, but just smells off to me.  Noble profession, strive to do my best, respected attributes… my alarms are possibly ringing because I had assumed the Hippocratic Oath to be a set of serious but memorable bullet points, beginning with “Do No Harm.”  After all, our cultural familiarity leans toward things like the Pledge of Allegiance and the Boy Scout oath.  So I looked up the original from Hippocrates around 400 B.C., and like those examples, it makes an appeal to his Deities.  But unlike our modern oaths, Hippocrates’ reads more like a treatise.  It is also part of a larger body of works, not only establishing the Medical Profession but the standard that physicians should meet.  The Oath and collected works had been regarded as the foundation of Western Medicine ever since, but apparently no longer (keep reading).  For the full translated text see these two variations, here and here.  For simplification, the Hippocratic Oath can be broken down into these major points:

1.     Swears by Apollo, Aesculapius, and other gods and goddesses to keep this Oath.

2.     To care for and look after his teacher, treating his offspring as his own brothers.

3.     To pass along this Art, without fee, to any sons, brothers, teachers or disciples who are bound by the Oath.

4.     To follow, himself, the same system of health regimen advised for patients, and to abstain from the ‘deleterious and mischievous’.

5.     To give no poison to anyone if asked, nor suggest any such counsel.

6.     To not give any pregnant woman medicine or procedure to induce abortion.

7.     To live life with purity and holiness as one practices the Art.

8.     To not perform surgeries himself, but to leave this specialty to those who are practitioners of it.

9.     Whatever house entered will be to benefit the sick, abstaining from voluntary acts of mischief, corruption, or the seduction of females, males, slaves, and free men.

10.   To keep patient confidentiality in sacred trust.

11.   To appeal for long life and the respect of all men, at all times, for keeping the Oath unviolated.

12.   To appeal for the reverse, should the Oath be violated.

It is easy to see why Hippocrates’ precepts, rooted in medical ethics and humane treatment, resonated for some 2,400 years.  He established a triad of care between God(s), the Physician, and the Patient.  He described his ‘Art’ as a duty, to be passed on with all seriousness, and without fee.  He recognized the need to practice what he preached, and the right to Life.  He recognized his own limitations, including the need for specialist care when his own skill was inadequate.  He recognized the power that Doctors had over their patients, and cautioned not to abuse that power.  He saw his oath as life-long unto death, and would forfeit his own life should it be violated.

So then, what happened to change it, and when did we start modernizing the oath?  My search into this has led to 3 primary vectors, in which the classic oath was lacking by modern medical practitioners:  1) atrocities and experimentation committed during WWII;  2) modern notions of abortion; and 3) its related cousin, the Eugenics movement.   Our 20th century forebears needed their abortions and euthanasia, among other things, especially after the tipping point of 1963, but let us start with 1948.  That was the year the World Medical Association’s Declaration of Geneva was written, as the first real attempt to update Hippocrates.  Now called a “pledge” rather than an oath, it reads thus:

1.     I solemnly pledge to consecrate my life to the service of humanity.

2.     I will give to my teachers the respect and gratitude which is their due.

3.     I will practice my profession with conscience and dignity.

4.     The health of my patient will be my first consideration.

5.     I will respect the secrets which are confided in me.

6.     I will maintain by all the means in my power, the honor and the noble traditions of the medical profession.

7.     My colleagues will be my brothers.

8.     I will not permit considerations of religion, nationality, race, party politics or social standing to intervene between my duty and my patient.

9.     I will maintain the utmost respect for human life from the time of conception; even under threat, I will not use my medical knowledge contrary to the laws of humanity.

I make these promises solemnly, freely, and upon my honor.

Notice the wording here is vague, squishy even.  No appeal to a higher power, but instead invoking things like ‘noble traditions’ and ‘conscience’.  The only new part of the oath is #8, i.e. treating all patients equally, which is implicit in Hippocrates’ #9.  The difference being of course that Hippocrates was setting limits on himself not to abuse the power of his role.  To its credit, the 1948 Declaration spelled out respect for human life from the time of conception, though that phrase would be stricken in 1994.  It also included what seems to be the first International Code of Medical Ethics, and it is a whopper (even though not part of the Pledge):

A few things jump out immediately for would-be doctors, such as the description of unethical practices.  Namely, self-promotion, profiteering, and collaboration with any medical service in which he does not have professional independence.  What then, can we say about modern hospital systems?  Here is another major one:  “A Doctor should certify or testify only to that which he has personally verified” – a statement most people would agree with.  So how many doctors actually verified Covid itself?  How many verified the “vaccine?”  How many verified negative claims about HCQ?  How many knew their labs were following an improper PCR testing protocol?  Let me press on.

The next update to the Hippocratic Oath was a re-wording of the Classic version in 1964 by Dr. Louis Lasagna, known as the Revised Hippocratic Oath.  Supposedly this is the widely accepted version in today’s medical schools, but that claim is seriously in doubt as you will see.  It is wordy, so here is my layman’s summary:

1.     I swear to the best of my ability and judgment to fulfill this covenant.

2.     To respect the scientific gains of physicians before me, and to gladly share my knowledge with those who follow.

3.     To apply all measures of care required, while avoiding overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism.

4.     To remember the art as well as the science of medicine, and that care and compassion may outweigh surgeries and drugs.

5.     To not be ashamed to ask for help from other colleagues when my own skill is lacking.

6.     To respect patient confidentiality.

7.     To ‘tread with care’ in matters of life and death.  Saving a life is preferred, but it may be in my power to take a life.  I will face this awesome responsibility with great humbleness.  I must not play at God.

8.     To remember that my responsibility includes the related problems of a patient’s family and economic stability, if I am to give him adequate care.

9.     To prevent disease wherever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure.

10.   To remember that I am a member of society, with special obligations to all fellow human beings.

11.   If I keep this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection.

12.   May I always act to preserve the finest traditions of my calling, and my I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help.

Compared to the original, we can see several significant changes:  No appeal to a higher power; Warnings not to over-treat the sick; Emphasizing that medical care is both an art and a science; Walking back Hippocrates’ stance on Life, now choosing death is just an awesome responsibility; Adding related factors such as the patient’s family and economic considerations onto the Doctor’s responsibility of giving adequate care; No mention of any punishment for violating the oath.

A fair question to ask at this point would be: Which of the various Oaths and pledges are doctors actually taking today?  UCLA’s seems to be heavily re-written, and it turns out this has become the norm.  There is a thorough 2015 study which found that NO schools surveyed still use the original oath.  Oaths based on Hippocrates, Geneva, or Lasagna were taken by 45% of schools in commencement ceremonies; but only by 31% of ‘white-coat’ ceremonies.  By contrast, oaths specific to each school or rewritten by each class accounted for 53% and 69%, respectively.  Let those numbers marinate a bit.  For the better part of 70 years, medical oaths have been getting farther from Hippocrates, and closer to whatever the school was teaching as relevant:

A few things stand out to me here, such as the difference between White Coat and commencement oaths.  An 18% difference in respecting confidentiality for example.  Note that only 61% are swearing to avoid harm, with a scant 8% swearing to do no harm.  81% of White Coat oaths feature the integrity of the profession, but only 20% feature prevention of disease.  On the positive side, the white coat oaths seem to put much greater emphasis on things like lifelong learning, personal growth, and humility / limitations.

But what of Nurses, you ask?  Doctors were not the only caregivers during Covid.  Nursing as a profession has its own abbreviated version of Hippocrates, originally known as the Florence Nightingale Pledge, now called the Practical Nursing Pledge:

Before God and those assembled here, I solemnly pledge;

1.     To adhere to the code of ethics of the nursing profession.

2.     To cooperate faithfully with the other members of the nursing team and to carry out faithfully and to the best of my ability the instructions of the physician or the nurse who may be assigned to supervise my work.

3.     I will not do anything evil or malicious and I will not knowingly give any harmful drug or assist in malpractice.

4.     I will not reveal any confidential information that may come to my knowledge in the course of my work.

I pledge myself to do all in my power to raise the standards and prestige of the practical nursing.  May my life be devoted to service and to the ideals of the nursing profession.

Kudos to the nursing profession for keeping reference to God!  The original pledge contained language about living a life of purity, and abstaining from whatever was ‘deleterious and mischievous’, much like Hippocrates.  The new pledge leans more toward cooperating with the team and the supervisor, and of course adhering to the Nursing Code of Ethics listed below:

Banner ad for ANA racism conference aside, I have mixed feelings about the 9 provisions above.  Like maybe they could jettison # 6, #8, and #9 altogether.  Provisions #1 thru #5 are wonderful.  Everything I want my nurse to be about, is contained there.  I especially like #4, and wish in my heart that more nurses could have seen Covid for what it was: a minimal threat to anyone except for the old and the infirm.  But by-golly, he or she has sworn in the Pledge to be a team player.  They have also sworn not to participate in malpractice, and I wonder how that will play out in the end.

So what now?

We are now seeing the result of what happens when doctors and nurses have ambiguous professional boundaries, and not enough internal moral compass.  I’m sorry to say it, and I know some of you did your best.  Hippocrates laid down a standard, which various generations of practitioners during the 20th century up until now have decided was just not scientific enough.  They gradually jettisoned the sanctity of life and ethical absolutes for relativism and evolving world views.  They positioned doctors to function in complex groups, under complex guidelines, with financial pressures and constraints.  The following quote from Robert Shmerling, MD, senior editor of the publishing arm of Harvard Medical School sums it up best I think, referring to the Myth of the Hippocratic Oath:

Today, health professionals routinely encounter ethical challenges in modern clinical practice. Rather than rely on well-intentioned but outdated principles, they must call upon their experience and training, widely-accepted modern guidelines, the advice of mentors, and their personal sense of right and wrong to figure out what to do. Fortunately, there are many useful resources beyond the Hippocratic Oath to help guide them in the right direction.

So what is really needed are not time-honored principles, but ‘widely accepted’ modern guidelines, good advice, and a personal sense of right and wrong.  Wrong according to what, I wonder?  My observation about Covid in the Philippines where I live, is that medical professionals simply abdicated their responsibility to patients by deferring unquestioningly to Department of Health protocols.  Much like in the US, where your hospital systems were following the CDC or whomever.  Our policies here were all wrapped up in funding provided by the WEF, representatives going to the WHO, and a Presidential state of emergency.  We had a self-proclaimed research group made up of medical faculty spoon-feeding information to the national media outlets, who printed it without question.  It was probably similar all over the world – a scenario that made it oh-so-easy for doctors and nurses to go with the flow.  Where was the internal moral compass?  Taking a back seat to modern guidelines apparently, according to Dr. Shmerling.  And this has been the hardest part of Covid for me to swallow.

I can accept a sleepy society being hoodwinked.  I can accept evil overlords pulling their strings on the world stage.  But thinking of our medical people abdicating their sacred responsibilities is a heart-breaker.  Because in the end the problem is not so much the oaths or the structure of healthcare, but that they both reflect a broken society.  Doctors and scientists are supposed to be our best and brightest.  Our most incorruptible, held to a higher standard and revered by all.  Swearing an oath is no guarantee that anyone will fulfill it, but there is a larger social contract at play here;  personal responsibility to one’s own profession.  Integrity matters, and breaking it has life-and-death consequences in this case.

Doctors, it is great to be concerned over social justice, and to tell yourself you will ‘do your best’ on decisions of life and death.  But I am compelled to ask this question: “How much diligence did you do during early 2020 researching Covid?”  Because some of us average Joes didn’t trust the narrative.  We researched it the best we could, and concluded the mortality rate was no worse than flu.  We have trained ourselves to read past the BS and ask the right questions.  We have become skeptical consumers of most information, and put blind faith on very few things.  By the time vaccines came around 18 months later, we had already dug into the available research, and what little knowledge was available on mRNA at the time, and concluded it was too new and untested to be worth the risk.  Did you?  Or were there other things possibly getting in the way of the care you wanted to give, and the care you were allowed to give?

The stress we are seeing over vaccine injuries, the lies spun during the fake pandemic, and the fact of the medical profession being led around by the nose by the WHO – this is a volcano that will eventually blow.  The malpractice suits are coming, doctors and care providers.  We are looking at you, Nursing Homes and private clinics.  The death toll is just getting started.  Mothers are losing babies prematurely; families are losing children to heart attacks; healthy people are suffering paralysis or dropping over left and right.  I know you know this.  I know you see this, and yet some of you are still out there pushing booster shots, which have negative efficacy!  Stop it, just stop it.  The Imaginarium will only be able to spin this for so long until mass awareness breaks….and then it will be Mt. Vesuvius.  It may only be a matter of weeks before she blows.

I suggest it is time to remove the mask — no pun intended – and face some truths about modern medical practice that are at odds with the original triad of God / Physician / Patient as established by Hippocrates.  Doctors who may be reading this, tell me if I’m close:  You work in a complex hospital system, with various incentives and policies that change from month-to-month.  You owe a lot of student loan still, and have a hefty mortgage.  There are procedures you are authorized, and others you are not; the same is true for prescription meds.  You are extremely busy, and for the most part read the standard approved journals affecting your profession or specialty.  If you refuse to follow standard procedures, you may lose your job or worse, open yourself for medical malpractice.  A lot of what you do ends up being driven by insurance, and you have to find creative ways to give the best care.  You are an enthusiastic believer in the importance of your work, and put a lot of trust in the system (at least before Covid).  It was easier to follow along the wave of Covid treatment guidelines and recommendations than it was to buck the system and put yourself at considerable risk.  Those who did so often lost their medical standing, or were forced out of the hospital system, or ruined in some other way.

If I just described you or someone you know, then please have faith.  Readers, there must be solutions to these problems, so let me shift gears into encouraging those good Doctors who may be on the fence to stand up and be counted.  There comes a point in your life where doing Right must overcome other impulses.   What if en masse a large group of you quit your hospital systems and opened home-health alliances?  What if at a young age you avoided Harvard and UCLA in favor of affordable schools and country clinics?  We have mountain villages in the Philippines in dire need of knowledgeable doctors and nurses.  There are 7000 islands here, I mean just choose one.  And no, of course you won’t get rich doing it, but you will touch people’s lives.  People who are often desperate.  What about the Caribbean, what about Africa?  I urge everyone – everyone, if you have read some of my other pieces – to get outside the Bubble before committing your life to a system that shuts you out of 3/5 of the world.  Here is another idea…what if some of you pioneered a return to the Country Doctor, which was prevalent in your Grandparents’ day?  He drove a black, affordable car and carried a little black bag, and made house visits.  I know you would probably rather get paid in Dollars than chicken eggs, but I’m making a point here.  This is exactly in the spirit of Hippocrates, and he even talks about it in his oath.

What I am describing essentially, Doctors, is going Galt in the medical sense.  Collapse the corrupt system, by your non-participation in it.  Don’t worry about earning a living, we will seek you out.  You will have retained your integrity, and brought down one of the most ruinous and parasitic schemes mankind has ever known.  If you want to redeem yourselves over Covid, then this is the way to do it.  Rebel.  Get out.  Cut up your credentials if it makes you feel better.  Give the Billions of us out here some other viable option than insurance, drugs, and GAVI-driven pseudo-science.  The world needs you, but we can’t trust you as long as you are compromised by the system.  There is a 4th industrial revolution coming, which I have mentioned before, and which will affect a lot more than just industry.  It will be a whole new way of life.  Why not be the tip of the spear, and help shape it?

To circle back, I opened with the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine Oath.  Do yourselves a favor and try to watch the video, listen and absorb.  It is quite telling.  The ceremony was September 9, but notice all the faculty on stage still wearing their masks.  Listen to all the wokeness, just dripping out of everything they say.  Dr. Jennifer Lucero gives an impassioned keynote speech about her personal journey, touching on white-coat symbolism, diversity, belief in self, communication, peer-mentors, having courage  to speak out on controversial issues, advocacy, inequality, equity, making change, health disparities, and the power and privilege to affect change.  Not surprisingly, she is also the Vice Chair of Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion…wow, what a mouthful!  I’m sure she is a great doctor, but those people represent the future of the medical system unless we – that is, You – change it.  Holy smokes.  If you are anything like me, perhaps you find it ironic that a medical school could in good faith take any money at all from David Geffen…but that is a rabbit hole for another time.

As always Readers, I urge you to remain vigilant.  Despite Emily Oster begging for Covid Amnesty, I think the next six months are going to be quite….volcanic.  If there is ever to be any kind of forgiveness, it has to start with acknowledgement of sins, and demonstrable repentance.  Sometimes the ills that befall us are humanity itself, because we all know what happens when good men do nothing.  Do not let Evil triumph.  Doctors, you can lead the way toward repairing societal damage by demonstrating your own integrity.  For that matter, I think we can all do the same the next time they roll out an unconstitutional policy or ‘mandate.’  Do not participate, do not comply.  Stand firm in your faiths and beliefs.  Be the solid rock that your neighbors, colleagues, and family need.  Pray for the strength that you will need to withstand the onslaught.  I will pray for you, too.

-----------------------------------------------------
It is my sincere desire to provide readers of this site with the best unbiased information available, and a forum where it can be discussed openly, as our Founders intended. But it is not easy nor inexpensive to do so, especially when those who wish to prevent us from making the truth known, attack us without mercy on all fronts on a daily basis. So each time you visit the site, I would ask that you consider the value that you receive and have received from The Burning Platform and the community of which you are a vital part. I can't do it all alone, and I need your help and support to keep it alive. Please consider contributing an amount commensurate to the value that you receive from this site and community, or even by becoming a sustaining supporter through periodic contributions. [Burning Platform LLC - PO Box 1520 Kulpsville, PA 19443] or Paypal

-----------------------------------------------------
To donate via Stripe, click here.
-----------------------------------------------------
Use promo code ILMF2, and save up to 66% on all MyPillow purchases. (The Burning Platform benefits when you use this promo code.)

Click to visit the TBP Store for Great TBP Merchandise