(With apologies to Patch Adams and any other medical practitioner who actually puts patient care before any other consideration.)

Many medical practitioners have sworn the Hippocratic oath since it was first proposed by Hippocrates, known as the father of modern medicine. Since that time, the oath has been changed by different societies to accommodate changing times, and, today, not all teaching schools require new doctors to swear to this oath. Below is an examination of one of the variants.

Para 1: I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:

Fair enough, but do they really know what they are swearing to? Do you?

Para 2: I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.