Hippocrates Code Of Ethics

Galen Hippocrates, often referred to as Hippocrates, is considered by many sources the “Father of Western Medicine.” He was from the Aegean island of Kos (Kerferd G.B, 1976). According to several sources Hippocrates was born around 450 to 470 B.C. and his death is claimed by many sources to be around 370 to 377 B.C., but some references place his death in 387 B.C.
He was also named Hippocrates of Kos, as he was from the Aegean island of Kos.
Hippocrates is considered by some sources to be the Father of Western Medicine and others just the Father of Medicine. He established a form of study of the human body with the emphasis on learning, documenting, and gaining a body of knowledge that would out live him (Kerferd G.B, 1976?). In doing this,
The code is still recognized as the proper way in which physicians should conduct themselves with their patients. The applications of various aspects of the Oath, translated from the original Greek, are still recognizable in our modern medical community after 2500 years. We will now look at the Hippocratic Oath by sections and discuss its implications to medicine.
The first section, or paragraph, is an introduction that establishes it as an Oath, enforceable by the current deities, (Apollo, Aesculapius, Hygena, and Panacea, and all the gods and goddessess). In today’s medicine, physicians ‘swear to God’ (source).
The second paragraph says that physicians are to give honor to his teacher and treat his teachers’ children as his own family. This appears to be Hippocrates round-about way of addressing “Professional Courtesy,” which is defined as one professional providing a service for another without charge or expectation of any direct repayment (source).
The third section discusses that physicians should first “Do no harm” (source). This may be the most famous, most direct, and most well known section of the Hippocratic oath. The section also discusses ordering the best diet for the patient that will render a recovery, which hints at Hippocrates belief in health and fitness for
This has been expanded and codified in recent years to become the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which carries legal punishment for violators. Prior to the Act, a patient could be wronged in a number of ways by unwitting medical professional sharing patient information with a third party. The emphasis of the law is that unauthorized information could later be used against the patient to prevent him or her from obtaining health insurance.
The ninth and last section is a promise of a blessing for holding true the Oath or a curse for failing to keep it.
Hippocrates lived in a time of war; of Greek and Roman conquest. It was a time of idol worship and superstition. Hippocrates is credited with being one of the first learned men to believe that diseases were caused naturally, and not as the cause of superstition or of gods. He argued that disease were caused by environmental factors, such as air, water, temperature, food, and other living habits.
Hippocrates’ had a theory of causation of disease which involved ‘four humors’. These causations were based on observations of sick people. They included liquids that he had seen emanating from the body: Black Bile, Yellow Bile, Phlegm, and Blood. Hippocrates hypothesized that the humors needed to be in balance in a persons’ body. When they were out of balance, the person got