Opinion
Hippocratic oath does not apply to issue of doctors pitching products
LETTER — Posted April 21, 2008
Regarding "Is their integrity on the line when doctors pitch products?" (Article, March 24/31): Your article quotes Howard Brody, MD, PhD: "Show me where in the Hippocratic oath you'll find how we're serving mankind by doing that."
Whether pitching products is ethical, I leave to debate. However, citing the Hippocratic oath to justify his point is a misapplication. The oath is a private contract between a doctor and patient. It says, I will look out for you as my patient regardless of outside pressures to do otherwise. It is not a contract with "mankind." It has nothing to do with doctors promoting products.
At the time of Hippocrates, patients could not be certain if the doctor had their best interests at heart, or those of someone else who might pay more for an unfavorable outcome. If there is an application of Hippocrates, it should be for doctors to resist the commercialization of medicine and the tendency of government and insurers to intrude on the doctor-patient relationship. Patients should know that their best interest is served, and not that of "mankind."
Steven Mull, MD, Rockford, Ill.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2008/04/21/edlt0421.htm.
