The Oath We Think Doctors Take

Physicians occupy a sacred space, entrusted with blood, breath, birth, death. It matters that they give their word to something greater than themselves.

The Hippocratic oath has undergone many revisions throughout the centuries. In earlier versions, physicians solemnly took their vows before the divine. The injunction not to do harm was followed by the statement, “I will keep pure and holy both my life and my art.” Biba Kayewich

Commentary

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, in my resistance to the vaccine mandates, I often said some version of this: “Doctors took the Hippocratic oath. How can they support policies that cause harm?” I said it confidently and repeatedly, and I believed it. In my mind there was a single, standardized, binding promise that every physician made before being licensed: First, do no harm. It felt like a fixed moral anchor, something solid I could point to when I felt that the medical establishment was drifting.