Changing Ethics and the Hippocrates Oath

Abstract

When I graduated in 1973 and registered with the Rajasthan state branch of the Medical Council of India, I was given a 
copy of the Hippocratic Oath.
That it is no longer the practice speaks volumes for what 
it is worth. Taking the Hippocratic Oath is probably no longer in 
practice, even though it can be of great worth and value for medical practitioners today.
How many freshly graduating doctors would even recognize it, let alone read it or swear by it?
Quite recently, this was the subject of a debate in the 
doc2doc blog of the BMJ, and in related publications.1,2
With an ongoing debate concerning the legalization of 
abortion and euthanasia, a tenet of the Oath stating ‘Not use my 
knowledge in contrary to the laws of humanity’ has already bitten 
the dust. 
In 1964, Louis Lasagna, the Academic Dean of the 
School of Medicine at Tufts University, wrote a modern version 
of the Hippocratic Oath which was, and is still being used in many 
medical schools in the present day.