Is the Hippocratic Oath Being Killed off by the Big Business of Medicine?
When people ask me about what motivates me to occasionally blow the whistle on certain ethical issues, I sometimes say that I am just being true to the Hippocratic Oath that I took when I graduated from medical school. My 40 year medical career began as a board certified rural family physician and ended by practicing holistic mental health care for a decade. During that time I have often found myself, usually unconsciously, invoking the primum non nocere (latin for “first do no harm” ) standard while recommending a treatment for a patient.