I highly recommend leaving the modern oath exactly as it is. The modern Hippocratic Oath should be a powerful Mission Statement. It should not be a platform of ancient and modern medical and social issues. Leaving the modern Hippocratic Oath as a Mission Statement reminds the doctor exactly why s/he became a doctor, and the good doctor affirms this why verbally and in writing, and more importantly, this why becomes a Form, an Idea in his/her mind while living. Commenting further on medical and social issues, both ancient and modern, such can be addressed in Purpose and Action documents, which "reside" under the Mission Statement, and such P&A documents can be changed to suit the reality of the times.

Roland J. Stoller

I am a retired Aerospace Science Education Specialist. While in college I majored in biology and toyed with the idea if attending medical school.

The classical oath makes reference to pagan gods. Since paganism was popular at this time, it was acceptable then but unacceptable now. Most doctors today may have some religious persuasion, and it is likely that they will recognize and may even worship the God of most of the God-worshipping population of the world. This is the God to be mentioned in the oath, if God is to be mentioned at all. After all, an oath is calling God to witness someone accepting the conditions of the oath.

The classical oath burdens, unnecessarily, the new physician to be responsible to his or her teacher to train certain relatives of the teacher, and his or her own relatives, to teach the healing art. Today there is so much illicit sex (homosexual and heterosexual) prevailing that it would be worth adding this as a restriction in the modern oath.

As far as I can understand in reading both oaths, there does not seem to be any contradiction in what the oaths propose. The problem arises when we realize what doctors can do to, and for, patients that are beyond the parameters of either oath. Though abortion is still an undesirable availability in the sight of many, it is legal and desirable by perhaps just as many. Unless Roe vs Wade is repealed in the U.S., a universal oath should bypass this issue and leave it out since it is likely to prevail in other parts of the world. If it is defeated in the U.S., then the American Hippocratic Oath should specifically recommend against abortion.

Otherwise, I see the modern oath as adequate. It is the responsibility of the individual doctors to have the moral and ethical values to decide if and how far they are willing to go beyond the guides of the Hippocratic Oath.

Ransom Ritter

I have been following a friend through her medical treatment for several years now. I have seen doctors who seem to be more interested in making money than following the Hippocratic Oath, either the original or modern one. They claim they will treat the poor but withhold medicine which may cure the patient in order to get more money out of the patient,s insurance, Medicare or Medicaid. The specialist refuses to see patients without the OEright, insurance, although patients may really be benefited by the doctor,s knowledge of their condition.

These doctors are more interested in giving less care, less expensive treatment, or not admitting a person to the hospital, though that person clearly would not have stayed in the emergency room for hours if they did not need care.

On the other hand, some doctors do medical tests that seem excessive on people with high-paying insurance. People who live in affluent areas are sent to specialists to rule out illnesses that there is only a small chance they have. Some medical facilities pad the bills to the insurance companies by charging extra for a treatment that may not have been done.

I know in every field there are people who abuse their positions. However, in medicine, these doctors were supposed to have taken an oath. Does the oath mean something to these doctors after they have been practicing awhile?

Francis O'Reilly