On the heels of World War II, with medical ethics in the spotlight following unconscionable Nazi atrocities, the World Medical Association (WMA) decided that the Hippocratic oath, which had guided medicine since around 500 BC, needed to be replaced. So the Association developed a new oath that contained some of the principles of the ancient oath but opened the door to continual modernizing.
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| The World Medical Association responded to Nazi medical atrocities not by reasserting the time-tested Hippocratic oath, but by asserting a new modern oath, subject to change every 10 years. |
The WMA's Declaration of Geneva, introduced in 1948, followed
the general pattern of the Hippocratic oath, which promotes patient protections
by highlighting the physician's discretion in the use of power.
The Declaration of Geneva followed the Hippocratic oath's
assumption that the physician is not a pawn of the patient but a professional
who exercises ethical judgment. The Declaration stated conscience freedom in
healthcare simply: "I will practice my profession with conscience and
dignity."[i]
Shifting ideology is replacing timeless oaths and
bedrock principles
By contrast to the fixed bedrock principles enshrined in the
millennia-old Hippocratic oath, however, the World Medical Association's Declaration
of Geneva undergoes revision every decade.
After half a dozen windward revisions in the direction of liberal social positions,
the evidence of the Declaration's ever-shifting form belies its claim to "safeguard
the ethical principles of the medical profession, relatively uninfluenced by
zeitgeist and modernism."[ii]
 |
| The WMA's ever-changing Declaration of Geneva is a virtual zeitgeist barometer. |
In fact, the Declaration serves as a veritable zeitgeist barometer, tracking with the current
era's cultural climate.
Exhibit A: Physicians
using the original Declaration of Geneva promised, "I will not permit
consideration of religion, nationality, race, party politics or social standing
to intervene between my duty and my patient." Five considerations.
By 2017, the list had expanded with over a dozen new items
or phrasings to read, "I will not permit considerations of age, disease or disability, creed, ethnic origin, gender,
nationality, political affiliation, race, sexual orientation, social standing, or any other factor to intervene between
my duty and my patient"[iii]
(changes noted in added italics). Apparently exhausted by compiling the extra
items, the Declaration editing committee decided to cover their bases for all
time: "or any other factor."
The Declaration of Geneva has quickly become a
"fill-in-the-blank" blackboard of social and political agendas.
Exhibit B: The
original Declaration unequivocally asserted, "I will maintain the utmost
respect for human life from the time of conception."[iv]
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| With every revision, "life" keeps getting vaguer. |
That apparent pro-life commitment survived just one
revision.
By 1983, activist editors had watered it down to, "I will
maintain the utmost respect for human life from its beginning" (emphasis added).[v]
Divorced from science and subjected to the ideological whim of the interpreter,
"beginning" could mean any time from conception to birth to verbal
ability to, what the heck, graduation
with an advanced degree.
Fill in the blank with your own whim.
Apparently by 1983, practitioners of modern medicine had
lost the ability to acknowledge what biological science right up until that
point had clearly demonstrated as an inarguable reality: that human life begins
at conception. So the new medical oath reflected the loss of scientific knowledge,
resorting to fuzzy, flexible ambiguity.
By the fourth revision, oath editors apparently had lost
all interest in when life begins.
The newly revised statement simply said, "I will
maintain the utmost respect for human life."
Perhaps the next revision will delete human and simply
refer to "life," followed by a subsequent revision that will pledge,
"I will maintain the utmost respect." The final revision will be
simply, "I," which appears to be the only remaining ethic. Whatever I
want, whatever I think, whatever I choose.
Autonomy.
Next essay: Abortion activists tie conscience freedom to ideological conformity
[i] Declaration of Geneva,
1948 original version, World Medical Association. Reprinted and analyzed in
"Use of the Hippocratic Oath: A Review of Twentieth Century Practice and a
Content Analysis of Oaths Administered in Medical Schools in the U.S. and
Canada in 1993," by Orr, Robert D., Pang, Norman, Pellegrino, Edmund D.,
Siegler, Mark
Journal of Clinical Ethics. 1997 Winter; 8(4): 377-388.
http://hdl.handle.net/10822/752459.
[ii] World Medical Association
web page, https://www.wma.net/what-we-do/medical-ethics/declaration-of-geneva/
accessed Nov. 16, 2017.
[iii] Declaration of Geneva,
World Medical Association, October 2017.
[iv] Declaration of Geneva,
World Medical Association, adopted October, 1949.
[v] Declaration of Geneva,
World Medical Association, October 1983.
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