BMJ 2001;323:1440-1441 ( 22-29 December )

Editorials

Medical oaths and declarations

A declaration marks an explicit commitment to ethical behaviour

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The newly qualified doctors of Imperial College School of Medicine recently adopted a ceremony in which they declare their commitment to assume the responsibilities and obligations of the medical profession. The decision to create a declaration ceremony was widely supported by the final year students and it reflects a recent resurgence in interest in medical oaths in the United Kingdom. 1 2

Some 98% of American 1 3 and nearly 50% of British medical students 1 4 swear some kind of oath, either on entry to medical school5 or at graduation.4 One reason why oaths are more common in America may be that American children are brought up to swear their allegiance to the flag, so the concept of affirming their beliefs is less alien than to British students.

Oaths are neither a universal endeavour 3 4 nor a legal obligation, and they cannot guarantee morality. So why should doctors take an oath at all? In 1992 a BMA . . . [Full text of this article]
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Article

Declarations for new doctors are unnecessary
William T Stevenson
BMJ 2002 324: 851. [Extract] [Full Text]

This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Huber, S J (2003). The white coat ceremony: a contemporary medical ritual. J. Med. Ethics 29: 364-366 [Full text]  
  • Lippi, D., Gensini, G., Conti, A. A. (2003). Charter on Medical Professionalism: Putting the Charter into Practice. ANN INTERN MED 138: 852-853 [Full text]  
  • Stevenson, W. T (2002). Declarations for new doctors are unnecessary. BMJ 324: 851-851 [Full text]  

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Stop this nonsense now!
William T Stevenson
bmj.com, 24 Dec 2001 [Full text]
Hippocrates and modern Declarations
John H Scotson
bmj.com, 24 Dec 2001 [Full text]
Close but no cigar
Stephan N Larsson
bmj.com, 25 Dec 2001 [Full text]
medical principles istated in bland language.
NANCY K OCONNOR
bmj.com, 27 Dec 2001 [Full text]
Time for doctors to commit to human rights
Peter L Hall
bmj.com, 4 Jan 2002 [Full text]
Author reply
Kaji Sritharan
bmj.com, 23 Apr 2002 [Full text]
A deficient declaration
John Grimley Evans
bmj.com, 25 Apr 2002 [Full text]
Medical oaths are now redundant
William D H Carey
bmj.com, 26 Apr 2002 [Full text]
Declaration of a New Doctor
FREDERICK F. FENECH, et al.
bmj.com, 25 Jun 2002 [Full text]
Access jobs at BMJ Careers
Whats new online at Student BMJ