Update

Volume 14, Number 1 (March 1998)

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I swear by Apollo Physician and Asclepius and Hygieia and Panaceia and all the

gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will fulfill according to my ability

and judgement 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 to no one else.

I will apply dietetic measures for the benefit of the sick according to my ability

and judgement; I will keep them from harm and injustice.

I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody if 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.

Into whatever houses I may enter, I will come for the benefit of the sick,

remaining clear of all voluntary injustice, and of other mischief and of sexual

deeds upon bodies of females and males, be they free or slaves.

Things I may see or hear in the course of the treatment or even outside of

treatment regarding the life of human beings, things which one should never

divulge outside, I will keep to myself holding such things shameful to be spoken.

If I fulfill 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.

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