"I swear by Apollo by Physician, by Asclepius, by
health by Panacea and by all the gods and goddesses, making them my
witnesses, that I will carry out, according to my ability and judgment, this
oath and this indenture. To hold my teacher in this art equal to my
own parents; to make him partner in my livelihood, when he is in need of
money to share mine with him; to consider his family as my own brothers, and
to teach them this art, if they indenture; to impart precept, oral
instruction, and all other instruction to my own sons, the sons of my
teacher, and to indentured pupils who have taken the Physician's oath, but
to nobody else. I will use treatment to help the sick according to my
ability and judgment, but never with a view to injury and wrongdoing.
Neither will I administer a poison to anybody when asked to do so, nor will
I suggest such a course. Similarly I will not give to a woman a peccary to
cause abortion. But I will keep pure and holy both my life and my
art. I will not use the knife, not even, verily, on sufferers from
stone, but I will give place to such as are craftsmen therein. Into
whatsoever houses I enter, I will enter to help the sick, and I will abstain
from all intentional wrong-doing and harm, especially from abusing the
bodies of man or woman, bond or free. And whatsoever I shall see or
hear in my intercourse with men, if it be what should not be published
abroad, I will never divulge, holding such things to be holy secrets.
Now if I carry out this oath, and break it not, may I gain forever
reputation among all men for my life and for my art, but if I transgress it
and foreswear myself, may the opposite befall me."