Why Not Give Hippocrates a Place at the Table?

• Author: Guinan, Patrick
• Position: Abstracts

Patrick Guinan, Why Not Give Hippocrates a Place at the Table? 18 ETHICS & MED. 155 (2002).

For nearly 2,400 years the regnant medical ethics was the Hippocratic tradition. The Hippocratic Oath had been the medical ethical standard in the western world, and has also influenced Moslem and Indian medicine. It has stood the test of time, and its moral dictums of beneficence, non-maleficence, and confidentiality have been above reproach, but it has been criticized as emphasizing professional etiquette and protecting the economic interests of physicians.

There are four methods of doing bioethics in the United States today: deductivism, principlism...