'HIPPOCRATIC OATH': IS THE PROHIBITION AGAINST EUTHANASIA STILL IN FORCE?

• Authors: Niebroj L. T.
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

Legalization of euthanasia in several countries and attempts to introduce permissive law in this issue in other countries (including Poland) have made that euthanasia has been one of the most hotly debated bioethics and health policy issues of the past decade. In discussions about moral unacceptability of euthanasia, its opponents refer to the authority of Hippocrates and, in particular, to the famous oath which is ascribed to him. This article aims to find out if at all and in how degree such references are justified or, speaking more precisely, in which meanings attributed to the phrase 'Hippocratic medicine' it could be said that the prohibition against euthanasia exists and is still in force. In this article, three main meanings of 'Hippocratic medicine/ethics' are indicated, i.e.: (1) as a medicine which is aware of its moral responsibility; (2) as a medicine which has its background in Christian ethics, and (3) as a medicine known from works of a historic Hippocrates or of an unknown author of the 'Hippocratic oath'. Considerations undertaken in this article permit us to sustain the thesis that the prohibition against euthanasia exists and is in force in the second of the indicated before meanings and only in this one.

Keywords

EN

EUTHANASIA; HIPPOCRATIC MEDICINE/ETHICS; MEDICAL ETHICS

Discipline

• PHILOSOPHY: PHILOSOPHY

• Publisher: Uniwersytet w Białymstoku. Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu w Białymstoku
• Journal: Archeus. Studia z bioetyki i antropologii filozoficznej
• Year: 2007
• Issue: 8
• Pages: 5-13
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Niebroj L. T.

• L., T. Niebroj, Slaska Akademia Medyczna, Zaklad Filozofii i Pedagogiki, ul. Medyków 12, 40-752 Katowice, Poland

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

07PLAAAA03406986