The Hippocratic Oath: To Abjure Harm
The fifth and next-to-final covenant of the Hippocratic Oath discussed here is to abjure harm. The oath I swore states:
That I will abjure (reject) any medicine or operation or counsel which is injurious or deleterious to my patients or their families.
This is a straightforward and virtuous pledge that shows that the doctor sincerely cares about a patient and wants the best outcome of therapy possible, ending up with the best prognosis for that patient and his or her family.
Before proceeding with any medical or surgical procedure, physician counsel is mandatory regarding a recommended course of action. A California physician is required by law to obtain “an informed consent to medical treatment”. Not obtaining this vitally important consent is medical battery (unlawful application of force upon another) and this is the most basic breach of confidence that a physician must reject or renounce if he or she cares the least bit about the patient and wants to be successful in his or her practice.
Clear communication between doctor and patient
A doctor-patient contract must demonstrate clear communication on the part of the doctor and his or her assurance that the patient “gets it”. It is the doctor's responsibility to completely define the mechanism of the illness or disease to explain why treatment is necessary. And it is mandatory to define what the benefits and risks of that treatment are. Then, if there are alternative treatment options, those same benefits and risks must be outlined to the patient. And finally, the doctor must describe the natural history of the disease if no therapy is chosen by the patient, including the ongoing suffering, pain, and eventual death if the disease is one which kills. So, if a doctor is not completely honest and thorough in the consent process, he or she is liable for battery simply for not obtaining it.
The style of presentation is everything when considering the communication between the doctor and patient. It is caring that makes that communication come off without a hitch, and it is near impossible to be trusted if any social ineptness is detected in the physician. Those qualities of caring are kindness, gentleness, patience, peacefulness, and compassionate simplicity are all very easy to accomplish and quick because of repetition and love of the job. It makes the patient highly educated and confident and willing to take the risk, satisfied that he or she is working with the best in the business.
In my career looking back, I wonder how many of my patients, when lying down on my operating tables, hopefully asked God to help me help them as we proceeded through those very important projects. The reason I mention this to you is to help define the oath sworn responsibility of informed consent and the precious value of it.
All doctors must know the very fundamentals of abjuring harm and then to practice it, or simply don’t be a doctor. Do not disgrace this profession. Sincere patients and caring doctors don’t want you in this serious business.
Governor Newsom has breached the covenant of abjuring harm
Now we come to Newsom and exactly why he has breached the covenant of abjuring harm. I stopped practicing as a surgeon in Sacramento for two reasons. Those reasons were that I refused to give up my ethics and that I refused to accept less and less of my due income for services rendered to patients. Many of my colleagues “stayed on”, accepting the abandonment of their skills and judgment and sole responsibility of caring for patients to Newsom. They became his slaves to do exactly what they are told to do or suffer harsh consequences, including not receiving any significant payment whatsoever for their toil.
Let’s examine a stark example of breach of informed consent and how it has hurt the Sacramento public. It dates to 2015 and was called SB277. Sadly, this California law eliminated nonmedical exemptions (those of religious and personal belief) for state-mandated immunizations for children entering public or private schools. This law was touted by Richard Pan, MD, a clinical staff pediatrician (of all things) at UC Davis Medical Center, the same institution where I became a board-certified general surgeon. Pan was also a state senator at the time. This is a huge conflict of interest, and Jerry Brown was right behind him. They passed the law, and Californians and their kids suffered because of it. Some died because of it. Shame on these political monsters.
I did my best to explain the breach of the Hippocratic Oath to numerous moms and dads who suffered immeasurably and had to homeschool their kids. I compassionately “yelled out” their need to force Pan to obtain informed consent but could not convince them. Richard Pan, MD, on the other hand, knew exactly what he was doing.
Then five years later, Newsom’s covid-19 insult brought on a massive repeat of this tyranny. He signed the Covid Misinformation Law in September of 2022 that took effect in January of 2023 and was repealed October 3, 2023, because of major legal pressure, defining the rules that Newsom imposed on California physicians as “unprofessional conduct”. What this law described is that physicians are forbidden to obtain informed consent! The fallout of this bomb means that all physicians obey Newsom now, and all physicians are harming patients because of him, even though this evil law was repealed.
The fact of that law, which is simply “keep your mouth shut doctor, or you won’t have your slave job anymore, or worse yet go to jail”, was what it took to destroy the medical profession by breach of the covenant of abjuring harm. After the fact, how many patients died and are still dying because of this wicked policy threat? Health care laborers do not even know what informed consent to medical treatment means now. That duty has been handed off to pharmacists and quacks. Pharmacists are of course capable, but the informed consent should happen with the doctor before the patient makes it to the pharmacist. It is a simple fact. How much has that hurt the average California citizen?
Newsom and his contemporaries will stop at nothing to steal your assets from you, to lie and to literally kill you, and are demonstrating this control over you and your doctors both. Please hear my voice now and become convinced that Newsom is in full breach of abjuring harm. There are many other examples of Newsom’s breach. Just look at his environmental policy and the political “science” contained in it to name one.
It is our job to free up medicine from the government’s stronghold of regulatory control over us and to simply re-establish and follow the common sense covenant of abjuring harm via careful informed consent to medical treatment. So, I ask you, as with the other five covenants, these fundamental questions:
Is medical help affordable?
Is medical help competent?
Is medical help satisfying?
Is medical help safe?
Please take a minute to answer these questions, because it is you who will decide the history of the future of medicine in California.
Read previous articles in this series on the covenants of the Hippocratic Oath: Honor, Teaching, Limitations, and Availability.