Friday, March 02, 2007
The word of the day is Hippocrates.Apparently, he was a dude who lived a long time ago and really hate abortion.
Hippocrates, the “father of medicine,” lived 460-377 B.C. He issued the “Hippocratic Oath” that has been required of medical students around the world as a condition of graduation. It originally stated in part: “I will follow that system of regimen which, according to my ability and judgment, I consider for the benefit of my patients, and abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous. I will give no deadly medicine to any one if asked, nor suggest any such counsel; and in like manner I will not give to a woman a pessary to produce abortion.” With impeccable Greek logic, Hippocrates saw abortion as being in direct opposition to a doctor’s role of promoting life and health. People who profit from abortion today refuse to obey the Oath.
Apparently, the fundamentalist Christians believe that even though Hippocrates was Greek and born 460 years before Jesus, he has their back on the whole moral issue and doctors to this day should take his advice on medical ethics nearly 2,500 years later. He might have done some other things, but conservapedia really doesn't think they are important. The Wiccan Pedia has more details, but they are commies so don't rely on their word.
The Hippocratic Corpus, the collection of works produced by the Hippocratic school, is largely responsible for Hippocrates's renown. That body of work, however, is limited in its historical value because of its ambiguous authorship and a dearth of historical context. As such, the achievements of the writers of the Corpus, the practitioners of Hippocratic medicine and Hippocrates himself are often commingled; very little is known about what Hippocrates actually thought, wrote and did.
Stupid liberal nuance.
Hippocrates is credited with being the first physician to reject superstitions and beliefs that credited supernatural or divine forces with causing illness. He separated the discipline of medicine from philosophy and religion, believing and arguing that disease was not a punishment inflicted by the gods but rather the product of environmental factors, diet and living habits. Indeed, there is not a single mention of a mystical illness in the entirety of the Hippocratic Corpus. However, Hippocrates did work with many convictions that were based on what is now known to be incorrect anatomy and physiology, such as Humorism.
I think I will stick to the conservapedia version. Hippocrates was the proto member of Operation Rescue, and was very old.
P.S. Conservapedia only excerpted the oath. I wonder why they didn't add the stirring start of the statement.
I swear by Apollo, Æsculapius, Hygieia, and Panacea, and I take to witness all the gods, all the goddesses, to keep according to my ability and my judgement, the following Oath.
They must have forgotten that section or deemed it unemportant for young conservative minds. Go figure.
Subscribe to:
Comment Feed (RSS)
|