The Hippocratic Oath: Honor

An engraving of Hippocrates by Peter Paul Rubens, 1638 (with edited background)

What is the Hippocratic Oath? How has the Hippocratic Oath been negatively impacted by Governor Newsom and his predecessors?  

Let us begin this discussion by finding out who Hippocrates was and why the Hippocratic Oath is vital to each and every one of us, doctor and patient alike. If we understand these basic principles, it’s bye-bye Newsom, hello healing!

What is the Hippocratic Oath?

Hippocrates is known as the father of medicine. His writings come from when he practiced medicine, around 450 BC. That’s about 2500 years ago! Medicine has been around for a long time.

The Hippocratic Oath is a series of writings of Hippocrates and his contemporaries which discusses the treatment of patients and the subsequent prognosis (foretelling) of the outcome of that treatment. And those writings hold today, more valid than ever before. Medicine is 100% about treatment and prognosis.

For example, if I get a belly ache that won’t go away and become a patient, I seek the help of my doctor and he or she “treats” me. If the diagnosis is acute appendicitis, then by having my appendix removed, the outcome of that treatment is recovery and back to normal living,   instead of suffering the natural course of this disease, which is perforation, peritonitis, septic shock, and death. Thus, the principles of good, common sense treatment are vital to all of us.

The six covenants

There are six covenants of this oath which I swore forty-four years ago, which describe the “spirit” of the doctor patient bond or relationship.  Each one brings up the issue of trust and care and of how and why Newsom and his Medi-Cal has so horribly (but thoroughly and effectively) breached all the six.

Those covenants are honor, teaching, limitations, availability, abjuring harm, and finally privacy.  They are in this order for the purposes of this discussion because this is the order of their appearance on the oath I swore.  But, as you will find, all of these covenants carry equal weight, and if any are violated, the results are the same. 

But first, let’s be clear. Nobody likes the thought of going to the doctor unless you are sick, but how you are treated in those unfortunate times makes all the difference in the world. And that goes for both doctor and patient.

If you care about another person, then your trust in that person grows. If you don’t care about others then your trust or faith in them wanes. It’s that simple. The entire issue of these covenants centers on caring and trust. 

Let’s begin with honor. 

Honor

One of the most amazing privileges of being a surgeon in Sacramento was in receiving patient referrals from my fellow physicians for consideration of whether I would recommend surgery. It was  like a feather in my cap. And the honor of being a doctor for every single patient that came into my office was wonderful. I made a lot of friends. It was equally an honor to operate on patients in the welcoming hospitals in downtown Sacramento, filled with eager and considerate staff, everyone from the tiny administration down to the housekeeper mopping the floors and keeping them shiny. It was always peaceful to say hello and have a moment of fun with everybody. Call it “team patient.”

Everybody was interested in, inherently tender with, and characteristically respectful of the people who really mattered to all of us—the patients. It was quiet in those halls, in the wards, and in the operating rooms because people were doing their beloved jobs, and they cared immensely for those prized paying guests called patients. That included even bad people who became patients. A human being is a human being in medicine. No discrimination. After all, patients, and everybody I worked alongside, were all God’s little children. There was always a smile looking back at you, needing you, and it made the environment conducive to healing, a very hospitable and caring environment indeed. Get these patients back on the road, back in the saddle, independent and strong. What a feeling of confidence and satisfaction for everyone. It’s simply about the welfare of all included, and of goodwill. 

Another feature of my early time as a surgeon was the profound number of physicians from all over the country who decided to make Sacramento home and who were always eager to look in on my patients when I asked them for their expertise if a problem arose. They were always prompt, correct in their assessment of what needed to be done, and kind to my patients. It made me very thankful they were around. It also made me eager to help them out when they needed my consultations. We didn’t need any outside help, especially with my alma mater, the place where I learned my craft—UC Davis medical center—right down the street. UC Davis was the tertiary center for even the surrounding counties, capable of various treatments of which the bread-and-butter hospitals in the region weren’t capable. In fact, anywhere you would go in California had equally dedicated staff and physicians in those hospitals and in those doctors’ offices, even in the smallest of towns.

Look at it from the standpoint of the patient. No patient wants to be in the hospital, but the doctors, nurses, hospital staff, x-ray techs, administrators (thank goodness not many of those around in the early days), and even the building maintenance personnel were friendly and respectful. It clearly helped the patients heal, and they knew it. 

So that’s my definition of honor. And it reflects a well-run and profitable business called “the art of medicine.” That is stuff of what the evil, bitter, greedy, thieving, dangerous, envious monsters called Newsom and the government-run tyrants exploited for their personal gain and control.  That’s called dishonor, and it is a horrible addiction. 

Dishonor

Patients inherently recognize it when doctors, nurses, hospital staff, outpatient clinics, and diagnostic centers don’t care anymore. They recognize what the problem is sooner or later, when there are no good doctors or good nurses around. They recognize it when caring medical personnel have been replaced by low or no-talent workers willing to do the job for what the wage requires. You surely can’t blame them. And that clearly isn’t up to the standard of the art of medicine. It is the opposite of exceptionalism. It is dishonorable to the art of medicine.

The above is my description of the breach of the moral law or covenant of the Hippocratic Oath called honor. And as my oath goes, “If I obey these covenants may I enjoy life and art, but if I violate even one, may the reverse be my lot”. 

It is my verdict that Newsom has violently gone out of bounds by exercising arbitrary and random power, essentially defining himself as a mammoth, unwelcome, dishonorable pseudo physician along with his massive dishonorable administrative state, and he has blundered horribly. Dishonor is the theme now in medicine, ever since it has been renamed ”healthcare” or government-run healthcare.  

So let me ask a few questions of you regarding this breach and of each successive breach to be discussed in this series. They all will be the same questions that will compare what we had to what we have now. Regarding honor, please think about these important questions when comparing doctor-patient-run medicine to Newsom-run healthcare:  

Is medical help affordable? Is medical help competent? Is medical help satisfying? Is medical help safe? 

Thank you for your focused consideration of this matter because it is you who will decide the future history of the medical profession.