A group of some 50 General Practitioners (GP’s) walked out of an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM), held by the Irish College of General Practitioners today, each furious that their voices have not been heard, prior to the introduction of abortion services, latter due to be introduced in January of next year. Some 300 doctors were in attendance at the EGM. The group, understood to be largely made-up of anti-abortion doctors, had wanted to vote on a series of motions, but were refused that right.
(1) An existing fragment of the Hippocratic Oath & (2) Bust drawing of Hippocrates.
As our readers are aware, a General Practitioner led abortion service is expected to be introduced from January 2019, funded by taxpayers, once the legislation is passed in Dáil Éireann.
From January next, patients are most certainly going to be asking their current GP whether or not they support and participate in a General Practitioner led abortion service. Those, like myself, who condemn the introduction of abortion, will most certainly be requesting their medical records and moving on to an anti-abortion GP. County Councillors, Politicians and their respective Political Parties who were known to support the removal of the 8th Amendment from our Constitution, can also expect to see a reduction in their Dáil membership.
Doctors and the Hippocratic Oath.
To be honest I remain unsure of just how many doctors take the Hippocratic Oath in the Ireland of the 21st century.
Hippocrates of Kos (c. 460 – c. 370 BC), also known as Hippocrates II, was a Greek physician and considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine. He is often referred to as the “Father of Medicine”, and a physician of experience and common sense, when recognised for his founding of the Hippocratic School of Medicine. This intellectual school revolutionized medicine in ancient Greece, establishing it as a discipline distinct from other occupations, with which it had traditionally been associated, thus establishing medicine as a profession. By ‘profession’ I mean an occupation or career that demands specialized educational training, unlike Dáil Éireann type politics.
Very little is known about Hippocrates, but he is portrayed as being a paragon of the ancient physician, and credited with having coined the Hippocratic Oath, which is still relevant and in use today. Some 60 medical documents associated with his name, including the famous Hippocratic oath, have survived to this day. The Hippocratic oath, is an ancient code of ethics for doctors, which states:- “I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God“.
Alas, in current times this oath is valued as more of a historic example of medical ethics and principles, rather than one to be taken completely literally.
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