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Hippocratic Medicine: The Ambiguous Legacy of Ancient Greece

* To whom requests for reprints should be addressed at San Diego State University, 5828 Beaumont Ave., San Diego, CA 92037. The twentieth century triumph of medicine over its sectarian rivals ended a long battle involving both politics and technology. Medicine acquired its legally sponsored professional status because it was able to convince the government and the public not only of its superior technical skills but also of its commitment to a moral ideal. In this struggle for professional status, medical doctors had a definite advantage over their sectarian rivals. That advantage lay in their identification with the therapeutic philosophy of Hippocrates, the most famous physician in history. Implicit in this identification was the view that the modern doctor is a direct descendant of the very school of medicine which Hippocrates founded nearly two and a half millennia ago in ancient Greece. The ancient disciples of Hippocrates raised the healing arts to the level of a profession by combining secular skills with a quasireligious commitment to the welfare of their patients. In swearing the Hippocratic Oath, they held themselves to an heroic standard of competence and moral responsibility. It was presumed that the modern physician, by swearing the same oath as his ancient counterpart, would adhere to the same heroic standard of conduct.