Hello my Zebras and Spoonies! Thanks for coming and hanging out with me today, I’m glad that you are here. Today I’m going to be talking about medical ethics, specifically “Do No Harm.”

Of all the Hippocratic writings the Oath, in spite of its shortness, is perhaps the most interesting to the general reader and also to the modern medical person. The idea of not doing the patient harm is within the Oath, but the phrase “Do No Harm” is not. Whatever its origin, it is a landmark in the ethics of medicine. It is a declaration that the purpose of medical knowledge is solely for healing. The Oath is the oldest known written work that speaks to Biomedical Ethics. And the idea that it expresses is still at the center of all bio-ethical debates today.