Thank you for pointing your readers back to some ancient principles of medicine in your “Hippocrates redux” editorial.1 I do agree that a new vision is necessary to pull modern medicine up from its current valley of disillusionment and greed. But I doubt that the new Charter of Medical Professionalism2 will be able to chart the course up to the mountaintop once again.
A fundamental Hippocratic principle is missing in the Charter you summarized. Patient welfare, patient autonomy and social justice are empty phrases without regard for the sanctity of life. Whose welfare, autonomy and justice are we seeking? Increasingly, medicine is treading upon sacred ground, whether that is in the womb or at a dying widow's bedside. Injustice reigns when one individual is deemed worthy of life while another is snuffed out. In contrast, Hippocrates would plead that we serve to our utmost even the least of these.
Karen Stel Family Medicine Resident Queen's University Kingston, Ont.
References
- 1.Hippocrates redux [editorial]. CMAJ 2002; 166(7) :877. [PMC free article] [PubMed]
- 2.Medical professionalism in the new millennium: a physician charter. Ann Intern Med 2002;136(3): 243-6. Available: www.annals.org/issues/v136n3/full/200202050-00012.html (accessed 29 Apr 2002). [DOI] [PubMed]