# physian's oath **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 8, 2005, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/physians-oath/289029 "2005-02-08T17:36:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![drhess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/94ad74/32.png) [@drhess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drhess)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2005, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/physians-oath/289029/1 "2005-02-08T17:36:16Z")
Do doctors/med students, what country/state and when, still take the Hippocratic Oath? Is/was it ever a requirement or just for fun and tradition? ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2005, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/physians-oath/289029/2 "2005-02-08T18:26:21Z")
Follow the link in my quote below for more info on this as the info there tracks very neatly with your question. Note that today there are differing versions of the oath which vary on things such as euthanasia (all described in link). > [@](#): > > “The Oath of Hippocrates,” holds the American Medical Association’s Code of Medical Ethics (1996 edition), “has remained in Western civilization as an expression of ideal conduct for the physician.” Today, most graduating medical-school students swear to some form of the oath, usually a modernized version. Indeed, oath-taking in recent decades has risen to near uniformity, with just 24 percent of U.S. medical schools administering the oath in 1928 to nearly 100 percent today. > > SOURCE: [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/doctors/oath\_today.html](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/doctors/oath_today.html) ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2005, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/physians-oath/289029/3 "2005-02-08T18:32:39Z")
This part is interesting as it seems the oath is losing some of its coercive power leaving it for some doctors to decide when and where to ignore it if they so choose. > [@](#): > > …fewer than half of oaths taken today insist the taker be held accountable for keeping the pledge. ---
**Author:** ![edwino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@edwino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/edwino)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2005, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/physians-oath/289029/4 "2005-02-08T19:07:29Z")
The original Hippocratic Oath contains some things which wouldn’t be that consistent with modern medical practice. These include a line about not performing abortion using a pessary, not cutting people “suffering from the stone” by which I take it bladder or kidney stones, and not charging the children of other doctors for training or treatment. [http://classics.mit.edu/Hippocrates/hippooath.html](http://classics.mit.edu/Hippocrates/hippooath.html) The one we use around here has been updated and shortened, and does not swear by Apollo, Aesculapius, Placebo, and Hygeia. ---
**Author:** ![drhess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/94ad74/32.png) [@drhess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drhess)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2005, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/physians-oath/289029/5 "2005-02-09T15:44:52Z")
> [@edwino](#): > > The original Hippocratic Oath contains some things which wouldn’t be that consistent with modern medical practice. These include a line about not performing abortion using a pessary, not cutting people “suffering from the stone” by which I take it bladder or kidney stones, and not charging the children of other doctors for training or treatment. > > [The Internet Classics Archive | The Oath by Hippocrates](http://classics.mit.edu/Hippocrates/hippooath.html) > > The one we use around here has been updated and shortened, and does not swear by Apollo, Aesculapius, Placebo, and Hygeia. Well, won’t you be surprised when you die and the Greek gods beat you up! What is your oath like?