What treasure have we lost to compensation culture?

Question

I was a little disturbed today because I heard that doctors no longer have to take the Hippocratic Oath

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocratic_Oath

It seems that compensation culture has left medical practitioners open to be sued if they try to treat but fail, therefore an oath which says a person who practices medicine has a moral obligation to help those in need regardless of politics, religion or creed has been lost.

In a world that has lost so much to cultural differences I think it is sad that you can no longer rely on a doctor to help you and that an oath that has been around since the time of ancient Greece has been removed for the worst of reasons.

I would like to see doctors and nurses free from the fear of prosecution for trying to help and the Hippocratic Oath reinstated.
What are your thoughts?

The wikedpedia is a link to explain what the Oath is.

My point is not that the Oath has gone, but that it is now a choice and very few doctors are taking it

Answer 1

TRUST is what we have lost through the compensation culture.You cannot trust your doctor to treat you, you cant trust your family and friends not to sue you for compensation if they get hurt in an accident. Cos in todays culture you do not have accidents

Answer 2

The only thing that I want my doctor to pledge to is, "First, do no harm." It doesn't say specifically how the oath has changed - just that it has. I would imagine that every graduating doctor has the "no harm" piece included in whatever oath he takes.

Quite honestly, I do not think that a doctor should be obligated to help under any circumstances. I would hope that most would choose to help, but they shouldn't have to risk their own lives in order to do so.

The oath came about before we had cars, ambulances, life flight choppers, and an abundance of doctors all over the country. Just 100 years ago, if a doctor refused to help you for something minor, it could be a death sentence. Today, that's unlikely to be true.

Answer 3

That's not all we've lost to compensation culture. An awful lot of our council tax goes towards paying compensation on a local authority level. I know several people who have turned into compensation junkies. I know a guy who had a fight and the next day took a photo of an uneven kerbstone and used it to get compensation for his broken hand (which he damaged on somebody's face!). This guy now works for the local authority as a grass cutter and is currently on long-term sick while he does cash-in-hand work for a local builder. My downstairs neighbour was compensated with £5000 to move from a rough area which is being regenerated and now makes life a misery for everyone else in the street. He has told me about several scam type compensation claims he has made against the local authority. If councils did not have to pay out so much in compensation our public services would be a lot better than they are. We are all affected by this insidious compensation culture.

Answer 4

I'm sorry - perhaps I misread your source. I can't seem to find where it says that doctors no longer have to take the oath - only that it has been revised over time.
A link from your souce says this:
"It is understandable that some radicals may demand the removal of the Hippocratic Oath at graduation with the argument that it is too antiquated to be of use. However, even in this modern age of technological and medical enlightenment, a gold standard in moral and medical ethics - no matter how utopian it sounds - is still needed not only to set an example to those who are inheriting the medical business, but also to protect those at the receiving end of the medical practice. Modification of the original oath is unavoidable - Hippocrates, being a man who was meticulous in his scientific methods and keen in his observations of the world with regard to man and disease, would surely have approved of the changes for the sake of keeping up with the developments of the world - but as long as our physicians and practitioners hold true to the basic tenets of the Hippocratic Oath, then it would continue to serve mankind for long after the name of its writer has been forgotten."

and this one:

"The Hippocratic Oath (see ancient and modern versions) is one of the oldest binding documents in history. Written in antiquity, its principles are held sacred by doctors to this day: treat the sick to the best of one's ability, preserve patient privacy, teach the secrets of medicine to the next generation, and so on. "The Oath of Hippocrates," holds the American Medical Association's Code of Medical Ethics (1996 edition), "has remained in Western civilization as an expression of ideal conduct for the physician." Today, most graduating medical-school students swear to some form of the oath, usually a modernized version. Indeed, oath-taking in recent decades has risen to near uniformity, with just 24 percent of U.S. medical schools administering the oath in 1928 to nearly 100 percent today."


That doesn't sound to me as though the Oath has been put aside.

"My point is not that the Oath has gone, but that it is now a choice and very few doctors are taking it"

Umm, did you read this:
"Indeed, oath-taking in recent decades has risen to near uniformity, with just 24 percent of U.S. medical schools administering the oath in 1928 to nearly 100 percent today."

Answer 5

I think it might be making go karts out of bits of wood and pram wheels and whizzing down the hill like a mad bastard regardless of the possibility that there may be a bus coming round the bend.

Answer 6

Dont believe everything you read in Wikipedia.
Anyone can submit stuff without getting it authorised. Wiki thenselves check no facts just put it all up for others to read regardless.

Answer 7

My goodness. This is the first I've heard of this. I am amazed and horribly disappointed, to say the least.

Nicholas - Admin
http://www.iConfessional.com

Answer 8

I'm gonna sue you for asking a better question than me