Scrap Hippocratic Oath, say Italian doctors
Ancient oath bans abortion and euthanasiaSome senior Italian doctors have called for the Hippocratic Oath, which all doctors take at the beginning of their career, to be scrapped. "There are passages which are no longer relevant to our times and which newly qualified doctors know in advance they will not be able to respect," Giorgio Ianetti, a professor of surgery at Rome University, told a conference. He was referring to the ancient oath’s ban on abortion and euthanasia. Some of his colleagues disagreed. The head of surgery at the same university, Luigi Frati, contended that the 4th century BC oath "reminds new doctors of certain fundamental concepts… They feel they belong to a scientific community with a long tradition." ~ London Times, Dec 11
Ancient oath bans abortion and euthanasia
- How long can you put off seeing the doctor because of lockdowns? - December 3, 2021
- House of Lords debates assisted suicide—again - October 28, 2021
- Spanish government tries to restrict conscientious objection - October 28, 2021
More Stories
The virtues and the vices of the outrageous
A Norwegian bioethicist, Anna Smajdor, recently set out a case for “Whole Body Gestational Donation” – using the wombs of...
Should bioethicists hold a conference in Qatar?
FIFA’s choice of Qatar for the 2022 World Cup sparked huge ethical controversies. What about its abominable record on migrant...
Bioethicist protests that ‘whole body gestational donation’ is misunderstood
Bioethicists have chosen a lonely and disheartening profession. Locked away in an office, they pound out publications which only a...
Are we already living in a transhumanist reality?
Last year an Oxford expert in transhumanism published “Future Superhuman: Our transhuman lives in a make-or-break century”. Elise Bohan, an...
What the world needs now is more bioethicists. Or not?
In a recent issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, one of America’s leading voices in bioethics, Emanuel J....
Does Giorgia Meloni have a bioethics program?
Giorgia Meloni, the leader of Fratelli d’Italia and Italy’s presumptive new prime minister, has views which must be sending a...