The Christian Hippocratic Tradition in Medicine

To some people it may seem anachronistic that the aim of Ethics & Medicine is to ?reassert the Hippocratic consensus in medicine as seen through the lens of the Judeo-Christian tradition.? What is Hippocratic medicine? As Hippocrates once stated, ?The medical art has to consider three factors, the disease, the patient, and the physician. The physician is the servant of his art, and the patient must cooperate with the doctor in combating the disease? (Epidemics, I, 11). These three factors?the disease, the patient, and the physician?informed the moral responsibilities of a physician. The Oath of Hippocrates was written against the backdrop of the patient?s dis-ease. The patient was sick. He or she had a disease which required the physician?s skills to treat. Treatment of disease might consist of a change of diet, the administration of drugs, or surgery. In the application of therapy, the chief concern was the good of the patient. Above all, the physician was to ?do no harm?. The patient, not the disease, was the primary focus of the Hippocratic physician?s art.