Hippocratic Oath and Lawyers at the End of Life

Doctors don’t swear oaths as part of our training anymore; and certainly not the Hippocratic Oath. After all, the Hippocratic doctor swears to follow his conscience, even when the patient disagrees. He must refuse to give women medicine or devices to cause abortion or to give poisons to kill patients, no matter who asks for it.

Neither doctors nor hospitals killed Terri Schiavo. Terri Schiavo was killed by her husband’s lawyers and the probate judge who forbade food and water by mouth and by IV or feeding tube.