Tuesday, December 24, 2013

The Hippocratic Thorn in Bioethics' Hide: Cults, Sects, and Strangeness


 2013 Dec 20. [Epub ahead of print]

The Hippocratic Thorn in Bioethics' Hide: Cults, Sects, and Strangeness.

Author information

  • University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.

Abstract

Bioethicists have typically disdained where they did not simply ignore the Hippocratic tradition in medicine. Its exclusivity-an oath of and for physicians-seemed contrary to the perspective that bioethicists have attempted to invoke. Robert M. Veatch recently articulated this rejection of the Hippocratic tradition, and of a professional ethic of medicine in general, in a volume based on his Gifford lectures. Here that argument is critiqued. The strengths of the Hippocratic tradition as a flexible and ethical social doctrine are offered in its stead.

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