Hippocrates' Oath and Asclepius' Snake: The Birth of the Medical Profession

T. A. Cavanaugh's Hippocrates' Oath and Asclepius' Snake: The Birth of the Medical Profession articulates the Oath as establishing the medical profession's unique internal medical ethic - in its most basic and least controvertible form, this ethic mandates that physicians help and not harm the sick. Relying on Greek myth, drama, and medical experience (e.g., homeopathy), the book shows how this medical ethic arose from reflection on the most vexing medical-ethical problem -- injury caused by a physician -- and argues that deliberate iatrogenic harm, especially the harm of a doctor choosing to kill (physician assisted suicide, euthanasia, abortion, and involvement in capital punishment), amounts to an abandonment of medicine as an exclusively therapeutic profession. The book argues that medicine as a profession necessarily involves stating before others what one stands for: the good one seeks and the bad one seeks to avoid on behalf of the sick, and rejects the view that medicine is purely a technique lacking its own unique internal ethic. It concludes noting that medical promising (as found in the White Coat Ceremony through which U. S. medical students matriculate) implicates medical autonomy which in turn merits respect, including honoring professional conscientious objections.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 Snake? Chapter 2 Hippocrates' Oath Chapter 3 Wounding Chapter 4 Oath, profession, and autonomy Conclusion: One or many medical professions? Appendix: Hippocrates' Oath: Greek text and literal English translation

About the Author :
T. A. Cavanaugh is Professor of Philosophy at the University of San Francisco where he regularly teaches medical ethics. He writes on medical ethics, double-effect reasoning, action theory, and the history of ethics.

Review :
"there are some treasures here. Cavanaugh has recovered the root of medical ethics - the ancient recognition that medical skills can be used either to heal or to harm." -- Mary McDonough, Commonweal Magazine "At last we have a book-length treatment of the Hippocratic Oath written by an ethicist who knows ancient Greek! Cavanaugh has made a major contribution, reading the text closely, and situating it in the context of Hellenic oath-taking practices, drama, poetry, philosophy, and mythology as well as medical history. The result is a really fresh look that allows the Oath to speak to us clearly in our own times. I recommend it highly to anyone interested in medical ethics or the history of medical ethics." -- Daniel P. Sulmasy, André Hellegers Professor of Biomedical Ethics, Georgetown University "Today it is fashionable in many quarters to dismiss the Hippocratic Oath as an embarrassing anachronism, or to keep the pretense of oath-taking while stripping the oath of its central promises. Cavanaugh shows that these are grave symptoms of a sickness to which the profession of medicine has always been susceptible. This sickness now threatens to reduce physicians to âprovidersâ of âhealth care servicesâ to be used according to the wishes of patients or the state, even if that means doing what physicians for two millennia have sworn never to do. In this comprehensive examination of the Hippocratic Oath and its role in the medical profession, Cavanaugh shows why it is critical that medicine recover the historic promises that makes it possible for those who are sick to entrust themselves to physiciansâ care." -- Farr Curlin, Josiah C Trent Professor of Medical Humanities, Duke University "Cavanaugh's superb book is a cogent and erudite analysis of the Hippocratic Oath. He reminds us how taking any such oath remains a vital ethical foundation upon which our very profession rests. Cavanaugh illustrates how the Hippocratic Oath remains clearly relevant and beneficial. Erudite yet interesting, this informative book is well-written and well-reasoned, and at once scholarly and entertaining!" -- Stephen J. McPhee, Professor of Medicine, Emeritus, University of California, San Francisco