Beyond Abortion by Rini Suzanne M

Author:Rini, Suzanne M. [Rini, Suzanne M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 0895554879
Publisher: TAN Books
Published: 1992-12-22T04:00:00+00:00

The Geneva Oath was first composed in 1948 as a response to the atrocities of the Nazi Holocaust. The doctors living in 1948 were frightened to learn that their German counterparts were actively involved in many of Hitler's mass extermination programs. In fact, many German physicians easily acquiesced to societal and institutional pressures for a "genetically pure" Aryan Race; thus paving the way for later campaigns directed against "inferior humans," such as the Jews and Poles.

At Northwestern, the fact that there is a kind of civil war within the medical profession was vivified by the "Modest Protest." As the dissenting students read the full Geneva Oath, the other members of the class stayed silent, bringing to mind the word "collaborationist" as it was used for these who fell into line with the Nazis. After relating the fray at Northwestern, author Brennan cited Dr. Andrew C. Ivy, American medical scientific consultant to the prosecution at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial: "The moral imperative of the oath of Hippocrates I believe is necessary for the survival of the scientific and technical philosophy of medicine."6 Perhaps, then, with Ivy's insight, the 1982 graduation ceremony at Northwestern was, in large part, a funeral.

The Hippocratic Oath figured very prominently in the discussion that preceded the Supreme Court's abortion decision. Some came to bury it and not to praise it. One was pro-abortion attorney Sarah R. Weddington, who was asked "why a discussion of the Hippocratic Oath had not been included in any of the voluminous briefs submitted to the Court" (Brennan's words). She replied, "The Hippocratic Oath does not pertain to that" (woman's constitutional right to an abortion).7 The Supreme Court itself finally finished off the Oath by giving it more the cast of the sidewalk phrase, "the Hypocritic Oath." The text of the Roe v. Wade decision included a reference to the oath by mentioning "evidence of the violation of almost every one of its injunctions" at some time or other by the medical profession. It also disparaged it as a mere "Pythagorean manifesto" and pointed to its "uncompromising austerity."8 This last is regrettable thinking, for that strict austerity was probably a burst of freedom for the physician, who was forbidden to favor any one set of humans over another for treatment. Hasn't it been a mark against the American medical profession that, in the South, before the civil rights victory, a black person could die rather than be treated by a white doctor?

The Hippocratic Oath's desertion by liberal forces is especially curious, as the oath is tied to a favorite cause of the liberal tradition, human rights. Anthropologist Margaret Mead called the oath the greatest breakthrough in human rights:

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