Have you ever read the Hippocratic Oath? (It’s a subject not too unfamiliar to the pages of First Things ). But if you’ve read it: Which one? While I was sitting in the doctor’s office yesterday, I noticed the Oath on the wall and decided to give it a quick read.
It turns out that the version I was reading was the original one written by Hippocrates himself around the year 400 b.c. Most medical schools today, however, use a “modern” version written in 1964 by a doctor named Louis Lasagna. Interestingly, Dr. Lasagna took a few creative liberties in penning the new version, especially in the matters of life and death:
I will give no deadly medicine to any one if asked, nor suggest any such counsel; and in like manner I will not give to a woman a pessary to produce abortion.
Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.
While I have you, can I ask you something? I’ll be quick.
Twenty-five thousand people subscribe to First Things. Why can’t that be fifty thousand? Three million people read First Things online like you are right now. Why can’t that be four million?
Let’s stop saying “can’t.” Because it can. And your year-end gift of just $50, $100, or even $250 or more will make it possible.
How much would you give to introduce just one new person to First Things? What about ten people, or even a hundred? That’s the power of your charitable support.
Make your year-end gift now using this secure link or the button below.
