The Hippocratic Oath is a sacred doctrine. It says that the patient is part of the healing process -- not merely someone the doctor or ward does things to. Centennial Peaks as I will describe in full imposed its treatment upon patients without their input. This must stop. It must stop in Centennial Peaks and it must stop everywhere. Without the participation of the patient, healing cannot occur.
First I would like to quote
from Hippocrates from his work Epidemics.
The physician must be able
to tell the antecedents, know the present, and foretell the future - must
mediate these things, and have two special objects in view with regard to
disease, namely, to do good or to do no harm. The art consists in three things
- the disease, the patient, and the physician. The physician is the servant of
the art, and the patient must combat the disease along with the physician.
I will now
quote from the Modern Version devised in 1964 by the curiously named Louis
Lasagna and used in many medical schools.
I swear
to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:
•I will
respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I
walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.
• I will apply, for the benefit of the
sick, all measures which are required, avoiding those twin traps of
overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism.
• I will remember that there is art to medicine
as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh
the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug.
• I will not be ashamed to say "I
know not," nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of
another are needed for a patient's recovery.
• I will respect the privacy of my
patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know.
Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is
given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take
a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and
awareness of my own frailty.
• Above all, I must not play at God.
• I will remember that I do not treat a fever
chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the
person's family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these
related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick. I will prevent
disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure. I will remember
that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow
human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm. If I do not
violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and
remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the
finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing
those who seek my help.
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