Having worked in the lower levels of health care, I've worked under numerous doctors and nurses. The implication of the Hippocratic Oath is that there is little variation among health-care professionals. I think it would be more useful if consumers were informed of the capabilities of the doctors and others, including chiropractors and hospitals, that they have to rely on. Of these others no oath is required, and yet they are often as much or more involved in a patient's care and treatment. Without the oath, there would be little difference in the responsibility that would fall on each of these caregivers.

Another point is the worsening of health care availability, especially for those of us who can no longer afford it. A few decades ago it cost only a few dollars a month and included anything from a doctor's visit to an involved surgery. Now it is a hundred times more expensive just to get in the door. This makes a joke of the Oath's ideal of treatment without regard for the bill at the end.

David Hulme

I must admit I had never read either the classical or the modern version of the Hippocratic Oath. I had always assumed there was only one, and I falsely thought all doctors had to take it. I think it's clear that the classical version is completely out of touch with reality, and I wonder if it was ever taken seriously even back in Hippocrates' era. The modern version tries to help put a little more reality into the oath and adds a moral element and a more humanistic approach to the document. It tries to deliver a physician we all can respect. I think it comes down to respect -- on both sides of the table.

Far too many of today's doctors have little or no respect for the importance of the patient-to-physician relationship. Instead of promoting this most critical part of health care, doctors are taught by their lawyers' insurance companies, and their own peers to turn a deaf ear to their patients and believe only test results. Relationships take time, and time is the enemy. In this environment, listening and observing become counterproductive.

We as patients tolerate physicians who do not care, prescribe inappropriate tests and medicines, and act in a condescending manner. We have little respect for them but we feel powerless.

I think if all doctors had to recite this (modern version) Oath, display it on the office wall and retake it every few years, it would go a long way toward rebuilding some of the lost respect.

R.J. Francis

I believe the original, ancient oath contained valuable moral and ethical constraints and imperatives that are essential for those serving fellow men (and women). A covenant philosophy is still needed to ensure unbiased and ethical behavior in those who command the great respect and responsibility that physicians have in our society. Furthermore, accountability and consequences for breaking the societal covenant should be reinstituted and monitored by physicians and nonphysicians alike. Perhaps this is idealistic; however, patients need this assurance for their confidence and reliance on physicians to be sustained untainted by fear and distrust. If these are lost, individual and public health will suffer -- perhaps with catastrophic results.

Anonymous

Today's modern medical technology produces smarter, knowlegeable doctors -- and that's it. I don't think it transformed them into healers; they're just there to introduce at bedside the cure. Most of today's doctors are there just for the big bucks. I think the true healers are the caregivers with true and compassionate tasks as health-care workers.

Anonymous

With regard to "doing no harm," perhaps the profession should take a look at its own practice of harming graduating students by imposing working hours of internship and residencies that severly damage the new doctor's physical, mental, social, spiritual, and in some cases marital health. Shame!

Anonymous