CT Classic: Doctors Under Oath
Modern medicine has misplaced its moral compass. Can Hippocrates help?
Nigel M. de S. Cameron | posted 11/01/2001 12:00AM
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Recapturing moral medicine
How should Christians and Christian physicians assist the reinvigoration of a moral vision for medical care? First, let us put abortion in its place, as a symptom of a diseased medical culture. Already, the blight of euthanasia is on us; and as a community, pro-life Christians are woefully ill-prepared.
Second, let's work for the reform of medicine, like the Hippocratics, by developing an alternative medicine held together by unshakable covenant commitment to the sanctity of life and to the good of the patient. Hippocrates founded a close-knit and interdependent community to challenge the dominant assumptions of the physicians and patients of his day.
Finally, Christians may serve as the conscience of a troubled profession, torn between its ancient moral calling and a technical reduction of skills-for-hire.
Nigel M. de S. Cameron is dean of the Wiberforce Forum. This article originally appeared in the Oct. 23, 1995 issue of Christianity Today.
Copyright © 2001 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.
Related Elsewhere
Also appearing on today's site:
Books & Culture Corner: "24 Cow Clones, All Normal" … | Oh yes, and a few cloned human embryos that died.
Earlier this year, Cameron and Lori Andrewes, a pro-choice bioethicist, argued in The Chicago Tribune that cloning is an issue that is drawing together a new coalition of traditional to express concern about where the latest genetic and reproductive technologies are taking us.
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