What happened to the Hippocratic Oath?

Above all, the public is anxious about the doctors leaving hospitals, leaving behind the critically-ill who should be dearly treated like their parents and children.

SHIN BOK-RYONGThe author is a former emeritus professor of history at Konkuk University. In 460 BC to 370 BC, the Hippocrates were a family of doctors for five generations, dominating the field with accumulated knowledge and experience. When Plato and Aristotle studied natural philosophy and anatomy, they gave high praise after reading the Hippocrates’ books, according to historical records.

Hippocrates was trained at a healing temple, but considered disease to be part of a natural phenomenon, not a curse from the gods.

He thought that what you eat is the cause of a disease, and health is a complex phenomenon depending on the air, water and location. Therefore, he based his treatment for illness on fasting, drinking honey and vinegar, and resting.

Apart from this medical theory, Hippocrates is most known for the Hippocratic Oath. He believed that a doctor should be clean, honest, calm, understanding and serious, while treating teachers and patients as true brothers, and keeping their own fingernails neat.

Currently, Korea is going through a serious medical crisis. While both doctors and the government have something to say, their arguments cannot convince the general public.

The government claims it must increase the number of medical doctors, but there is no guarantee the increased number would go to medical blind spots and less lucrative fields out of a sense of dedication and service. Today is not like the medieval time when doctors received civil and criminal punishments for violating the Hippocratic Oath and lived only for emotional rewards.

On the other hand, the public is not convinced by the Korean Medical Association’s claim that the conflict is not about a turf war. They didn’t explain why trainee doctors, who sleep in the office and can only go home to change clothes on weekends, vehemently oppose the increase in the enrollment quota for medical schools across the country.

Above all, the public is anxious about the doctors leaving hospitals, leaving behind the critically-ill who should be dearly treated like their parents and children, and instead ignore the Hippocratic Oath. Those doctors who left the workplace must not forget their anxiety.