The Hippocratic Oath Today | Nova

The Hippocratic Oath Is One of the Oldest Binding Documents in History. Written in Antiquity, Its Principles Are Held Sacred by Doctors to This Day: Treat the Sick to the Best of One's Ability, Preserve Patient Privacy, Teach the Secrets of Medicine to the Next Generation, and So On. "The Oath of Hippocrates," Holds the American Medical Association's Code of Medical Ethics (1996 Edition), "Has Remained in Western Civilization as an Expression of Ideal Conduct for the Physician." Today, Most Graduating Medical-School Students Swear to Some Form of the Oath, Usually a Modernized Version. Indeed, Oath-Taking in Recent Decades Has Risen to Near Uniformity, with Just 24 Percent of U. S. Medical Schools Administering the Oath in 1928 to Nearly 100 Percent Today.