Morals in Medicine1

The Hippocratic oath which I have just administered to myself before you in all solemnity—an oath which was never administered to me at any stage of my career. None of you too, I guess, has ever been subjected to this or any such oath. Although the Hippocratic oath may look out of place in our midst, the noble sentiments and high ideals expressed therein, the guiding principles for doctors arc perhaps timeless. I have been chosen for this oration which I consider the greatest event of my life not because of the honour that I deserve but becau-e on this occasion I have the unique opportunity to pay my humble tribute to that great man who lived and breathed among us—D.L.N. Murti Rao— a glorious example of a physician who lived upto the highest standards of medical morals and ethics from what ever scale you may choose to measure him. I knew him very intimately—perhaps more than most of you almost since the days of infancy of psychiatry in the country. The development of psychiatry in India as we sec today is the result of his pioneering and dedicated work. When the history of psychiatry in India will be written, his name will adorn the place of pride on its foremost pages. He was a true embodiment of a versatile physician, with profound knowledge, an ideal teacher—a guru, and above all a great human. It is for this reason that I have chosen this occasion to talk on the subject of'Morals in Medicine" which most people talk about but only a few honestly practice it. The task I have set forth for myself is undoubtedly rough. To speak on ethics, is to stir a hornest's nest. I may be dubbed as a moralist or a hypocrite or at least an Utopian idealist as Chavez (1964) calls it. It also involves application of moral rules to situations and relationships in changing moral and social values here a rather cumbursome exercise. Much before Hippocrates laid down the rules of conduct contained in the oath that I have just taken, there already existed in Ayurvedic texts a much more comprehensive and well documented description of the codes of behaviour for the 'Vaidya'—the physician and the teacher, for students of medical sciences, for administration of drugs, for duties of attendents, and various other activities connected with health care. It is perhaps too comprehensive to …