The Hippocratic Oath is an oath of ethics historically taken by physicians. It is one of the most widely known of Greek medical texts. In its original form, it requires a new physician to swear, by a number of healing gods, to uphold specific ethical standards. The oath is the earliest expression of medical ethics in the Western world, establishing several principles of medical ethics which remain of paramount significance today. These include the principles of medical confidentiality and non-maleficence. As the foundational expression of certain principles that continue to guide and inform medical practice, the ancient text is of more than historic and symbolic value. It is enshrined in the legal statutes of various jurisdictions, such that violations of the oath may carry criminal or other liability beyond the oath's symbolic nature.
Text of the oath
thumb|A fragment of the oath on the 3rd-century [[Oxyrhynchus Papyri|Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 2547.]]
The original oath was written in Ancient Greek, between the fifth and third centuries BC. Although it is traditionally attributed to the Greek doctor Hippocrates and it is usually included in the Hippocratic Corpus, modern scholars do not regard it as having been written by Hippocrates himself. The oldest manuscript containing the oath dates to roughly the 10th–11th century, held in the Vatican Library, although papyrus fragments of the oath have been found as early as the 3rd century AD.
Below is the Hippocratic Oath, in Ancient Greek, from the 1923 Loeb edition, followed by the English translation: