Editing Reclaiming Medical Ethics (section)

==== The Religious Element ====
<blockquote>I swear by Apollo the physician, and Asclepius, and Hygieia and Panacea and all the gods and goddesses as my witnesses, that, according to my ability and judgment, I will keep this Oath and this contract.
<u>(TRANSLATION BY MICHAEL NORTH)</u></blockquote>An oath, even considering the Oxford definition, is inherently and inescapably religious – it involves the appeal to either God or a sacred or revered object that a statement is true or that a promise shall be kept. While the original oath written by Hippocrates begins by invoking “Apollo, Asclepius, and by Health and Panacea”, along with all the Gods and Goddesses; Caraka prescribes a hōma to be conducted at the time of initiation, with the student required to offer libations to and utter mantras evoking Brahman, the God Agni, the celestial physician Dhanvantari, the Lord of creation Dakṣa, the celestial physician-twin Aśvins, the God of Gods Indra, and Ṛṣis who were authors of texts related to the life-sciences. The student, supervised by his guru, was also required to worship a number of physicians by making respectful salutations to them, and in the presence of these physicians, brāhmaṇas, and Agni as witness, take upon himself the instructions of his teacher and the contents of the oath.

The practice of Āyurveda is constantly demonized as being unscientific, regressive and riddled with superstition, and its system of medical ethics is conveniently ignored. Since the traditional schools that subscribe to these rituals, lineages, and knowledge systems have been all but dismantled, the least the modern Indian state could probably do is honor Caraka’s superior code of ethics that has unquestionably withstood the test of time — even if by the popularization and implementation of a “secularized” version.

Given the seemingly universal content of the oath, one might wonder why the recent controversy regarding the adoption of this oath in place of the (foreign) Hippocratic was even an issue – after all, the important thing is to champion and encourage ethical behavior, irrespective of the source — especially given its relegation to a secondary status in our modern, commercialized healthcare system. The All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi already incorporates an abridged version of an excerpt from Caraka’s oath, translated as follows:
 Not for the self, not for the fulfillent of any worldly material desire or gain, but solely for the good of suffering humanity, I will treat my patients and excel all.
However, this one line, isolated from the rest of Caraka’s original oath and unbeknownst to those uttering it, is perhaps not enough of a nod to the ancient physician as he rightfully deserves. It is also not bold enough of a move as entirely rejecting the Western oath altogether and instead subscribing to our own version of it would be, even if concessions are made and it is not administered in its original Sanskrit and ritual setting but translated to a local language, or even English.

In this era of rapid technological advances and innovative therapies, the influence of materialism and the unconscionable aspects of rampant commercialization have already been irrevocably incorporated into our healthcare systems and also into society at large, and physicians are not particularly immune. It is important that India reclaims and rediscovers not only its own code of ethics as prescribed by its ancient physicians and Āyurvedic traditions, but also contextualizes the underlying principles upon which they are based, in order to address the ethical dilemmas that modernity and scientific progress are bound to throw up, with ease, rootedness and authenticity.