A Companion to the Philosophy of Technology

History

The history of medical ethics can be traced to two sources. The first of these is the professional ethics of the medical profession, its internal rules of conduct. The second is general moral philosophy and theology. Although there has been mutual influence between these two lines of thought and practice throughout history, strong interaction between moral theory and medical ethics is a relatively recent phenomenon.

Within medical historiography some have tried to trace an unbroken line of rules or principles of conduct from the Hippocratic Oath (see Box 6.1) attributed to the Greek physician Hippocrates (c. 460–370 BC) to current rules of conduct, often in order to be able to claim that medicine stands in an unbroken Hippocratic tradition and should follow the principles in the oath (e.g. its prohibition against prescribing abortifacients). Some even seem to think that all doctors still swear the Oath. But both claims are fallacious. Only a minority of modern doctors swear the Hippocratic Oath, and even within Western medicine there have been long periods in which the Oath played no role in setting the standards for medical conduct.

Box 6.1 The Hippocratic Oath

I swear by Apollo Physician and Asclepius and Hygiea and Panaceia and all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will fulfill according to my ability and judgment this oath and this covenant:

To hold him who has taught me this art as equal to my parents and to live my life in partnership with ...