Medical Codes and Oaths

Abstract

Religious and state authorities, and healthcare practitioners themselves, have used oaths, codes both to further their own interests and to promote the interests of the sick. This article reviews the history of religious, state, and self-regulatory healthcare oaths and codes, with a special focus on the oaths of midwives and physicians. Among the oaths and codes reviewed are the Communist and Nazi medical oaths; the most famous of the self-regulatory oaths, the Hippocratic Oath, the Declaration of Geneva, Percival’s Code, the code of ethics of the American Medical Association, and the World Medical Association’s Declarations of Geneva and Helsinki. The article concludes with a review of critiques of self-regulatory healthcare oaths and codes.