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The Code of Ethics for Nutrition and Dietetics Professionals (2018) is explained by and correlated with the Hippocratic Oath. A current complex ethical situation that registered dietitians may encounter is voluntary stopping of eating and drinking, when incapacitated patients facing future serious illness request to starve and dehydrate themselves to hasten their own death voluntarily. This is in contrast to situations when assisted nutrition becomes burdensome or poses no benefit for the patient and their prognosis, typically near the end of life. Dignity therapy is an up-and-coming therapeutic strategy that practitioners can learn to use for appropriate practice to uphold the four parameters of the Code of Ethics for Nutrition and Dietetics Professionals (2018). Using current evidence from medical ethics, a systematic process for deciphering moral dilemmas is presented and grounded in evidence from the American Dietetic Association (2008) and the current Code of Ethics for Nutrition and Dietetic Professionals (2018). •The Code of Ethics (2018) for Dietitians is aligned with the Hippocratic Oath.•Voluntary stopping eating and drinking is a complex ethical issue for Registered Dietitians when patients decline food to hasten death.•Spiritual care and Dignity Therapy help Registered Dietitians uphold ethical, patient-centered care.•A systematic ethics process uses evidence from moral psychology, and Code of Ethics (2018).

The Hippocratic Oath is the foundation for the moral ideals and goals of Western medicine. We aimed to develop a research tool to determine the perception among diverse groups of physicians and to determine the current perception of the Hippocratic Oath. We used the semantic differential to map the connotative meaning of the Oath. We selected 34 research articles with abstracts from a literature search. The attributes (adjectives) used to describe the Oath were added to adjectives from a semi-structured questionnaire filled in at the Olomouc military hospital. We modified the factors and selected 8 scales by optimizing the semantic differential. Overall, Czech physicians perceived the Oath highly positively based on the factor of evaluation. Negative and even neutral viewpoints were rare. The strongest factor– progressivity–revealed that the topicality of the Hippocratic Oath is very important to physicians. A statistically significant difference was found between female physicians and their male counterparts, with women rating the Oath’s progressivity higher than men, as well as perceiving the Oath generally more positively than men. Our analysis confirmed the importance and success of continuing education. The standardized methodology can be used in medical education to analyze the semantic space of the Hippocratic Oath.

This engaging book examines what the Hippocratic Oath meant to Greek physicians 2400 years ago, and reflects on its relevance to medical ethics today. Drawing on the writings of ancient physicians, Greek playwrights, and modern scholars, each chapter explores one of its passages and concludes with a modern case discussion. The Oath proposes principles governing the relationship between the physician and society and patients. It rules out the use of poison and a hazardous abortive technique. It defines integrity and discretion in physicians’ speech. The ancient Greek medical works written during the same period as the Oath reveal that Greek physicians understood that they had a duty to avoid medical errors and learn from bad outcomes. These works showed how and why to tell patients about their diseases and dire prognoses in order to develop a partnership for healing and to build the credibility of the profession. Miles uses these writings to illuminate the meaning of the Oath in its day and in so doing shows how, and why it remains a valuable guide to the ethical practice of medicine. This is a book for anyone who loves medicine and is concerned about the ethics and history of this profession.

[...]during the early years of my career, my patients' secrets caused me no small amount of shame, mainly because I could not reliably keep my mouth shut. In recent years, an added element compounds my shame: the fear that I may become one of those ponderous fogies so common in medicine, giving unsolicited advice and endlessly reminiscing about the golden era when giants walked the halls of the hospital. Historical/Corbis/Getty Images Daniel Cacouault/Bridgeman Images It became evident to me even during medical school that my talkativeness, which had been, for the most part until then, an asset both socially and academically, could cause me trouble in my chosen profession. Once, I was doing clinical rounds in the hospital and found myself inches away from a famous person, clothed in a pale blue hospital gown, leaning on the arm of a physical therapist, looking ill and frail but still wearing that star-like shimmer—the white teeth and the perfect haircut.

The present paper discusses the relevance and significance of the Hippocratic Oath to contemporary medical ethical and moral values. It attempts to answer the questions about some controversial issues related to the Oath. The text is divided in two parts. Part I discusses the general attributes and ethical values of the Oath, while Part II presents a detailed analysis of each passage of the Oath with regard to perennial ethical principles and moral values. Part I starts with the contribution of Hippocrates and his School of Cos to medicine. It continues by examining the moral dilemmas concerning physicians and patients in the Classical Times and in the Modern World. It also investigates how the Hippocratic Oath stands nowadays, with regard to the remarkable and often revolutionary advancements in medical practice and the significant evolution in medical ethics. Further, it presents the debate and the criticism about the relevance of the general attributes and ethical values of the Oath to those of modern societies. Finally, it discusses the endurance of the ethical values of the Hippocratic Oath over the centuries until today with respect to the physicians’ commitment to the practice of patient-oriented medicine. Part I concludes with the Oath’s historic input in the Judgment delivered at the close of the Nuremberg “Doctors’ Trial”; this Judgement has become legally binding for the discipline in the Western World and was the basis of the Nuremberg Code. The ethical code of the Oath turned out to be a fundamental part of western law not only on medical ethics but also on patients’ rights regarding research.

Physicians have been taking the Hippocratic Oath for centuries. The Oath contains a set of ethical rules designed to guide physicians through their profession; it articulates a set of true north principles that govern the practice of medicine. The Hippocratic Oath has undergone several revisions, most notably in 1948 by the World Medical Association. However, in an era of rapid change in medicine, we believe it is time to update the Oath with modest but meaningful additions so that it optimally reflects 21st century health care. The rise of digital health has dramatically changed the practice of medicine in a way that could not have been easily predicted at the time Hippocrates outlined his ethical principles of medicine. Digital health is a broad term that encompasses use of digital devices and platforms, including electronic health records, patient-provider portals, mobile health apps, wearable biosensors, artificial intelligence, social media platforms, and medical extended reality, to improve the process and outcomes of health care delivery. These technologies have driven a cultural transformation in the delivery of care. We offer modest suggestions to help prompt discussion and contemplation about the current Oath and its relevancy to our changing times. Our suggestions are not meant to be a definitive set of final recommendations. Rather, we propose new text that bodies such as the World Medical Association might consider integrating into an updated Oath, just as previous changes were adopted to ensure the Oath remains relevant and impactful for all physicians and their patients.

This paper explores public perceptions of the Hippocratic Oath (Physician’s Oath) in the U.K. Results of a questionnaire administered online to 106 adults indicated that the majority were of the opinion that their primary and secondary health care doctors had taken the Oath (88% and 86% respectively). A majority thought that nurses, paramedics, psychotherapists and graduate scientists and researchers should also take some form of professional oath. Elements of the Oath which were deemed most important included that it is a sworn oath, that doctors should not harm patients, act in the best interests of patients, abide by the principles of autonomy and informed consent and maintain patient confidentiality. A significant proportion - about 20% - of the UK public felt that doctors had forgotten their Hippocratic Oath during COVID-19 lockdowns and associated vaccination programme, suggesting that recent history may have damaged the public faith in the medical profession.

Most codes of ethics states that physician-assisted suicide is prohibited, mainly because it is \"fundamentally incompatible with the physician's role as healer\". It would also be difficult to control, and would pose serious societal risks. Physician-assisted suicide is contrary to the Hippocratic Oath, when it states that no doctors will give deadly medicine to anyone if asked, nor will suggest any such counsel. The push towards a change of legislation, in a permissive sense, and some acquittal judgments have led the top of professional orders to decide that, under certain conditions, disciplinary sanctions should not be imposed on doctors who facilitate a patient's death (6th February 2020). This scenario poses a challenge to the medical profession. The request for death must be evaluated in the framework of a \"shared planning of care\".

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been beneficial for humanity, improving many human activities. However, there are now significant dangers that may increase when AI reaches a human level of intelligence or superintelligence. It is paramount to focus on ensuring that AI is designed in a manner that is robustly beneficial for humans. The ethics and personal responsibilities of AI scientists could play an important role in continuing the constructive use of AI in the future. Lessons can be learnt from the long and successful history of medical ethics. Therefore, a Hippocratic Oath for AI scientists may increase awareness of the potential lethal threats of AI, enhance efforts to develop safe and beneficial AI to prevent corrupt practices and manipulations and invigorate ethical codes. The Hippocratic Oath in medicine, using simple universal principles, is a basis of human ethics, and in an analogous way, the proposed oath for AI scientists could enhance morality beyond biological consciousness and spread ethics across the universe.