Hippocrates, Engraving by Peter Paul Rubens

HERE is an outstanding lecture by the Canadian physician Dr. John Patrick, M.D., who discusses the origins of the Hippocratic Oath and the modern world’s revolutionary assault on ethical standards in medicine. Without the belief in objective moral truth and the immortality of the soul, medicine — even in a world of advanced science  —  becomes barbaric. Here is Patrick’s essay on the Hippocratic Oath. He writes:

The opening phrase of the Oath of Hippocrates is worthy of deep reflection. The literal form of the Oath cannot be sworn by Christians but they will relate immediately to the intent of Hippocrates and his followers, unlike sophisticated moderns and post-moderns who dismiss it as a mere vestigial marker of cultural superstitions unworthy of a scientific age. Certainly Hippocrates would find little with which to sympathize in the dominant model for the teaching of medicine today, which is founded on the cultural hubris that our categories supersede those of Hippocrates because it presumes that medicine is adequately described by the categories of biology, psychology and sociology. The transcendent dimension is denied.

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