The Hippocratic Oath across the interfaith spectrum

Abstract

Almost every medical school’s graduation ceremony includes some sort of professional medical oath. The Hippocratic Oath, written over 2400 years ago, is the oldest and most well-known of these vows. The essential components of modern medical ethics—beneficence, nonmaleficence, autonomy, and justice—outlined in the Hippocratic Oath persist to this day. The substance of the Hippocratic Oath has been altered and its authorship questioned, yet the major world religions, Baha’i, Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Shinto, Sikhism, Taoism, and Zoroastrianism, had versions of the Hippocratic Oath to emphasize the importance of beneficence, nonmaleficence, autonomy, and justice for newly initiated physicians. By investigating these alternative versions of the Hippocratic Oath, similarities between different faiths emerge, reinforcing a common thread of humanity that spans across time.