“First, do no harm.” This principle is well known to physicians as part of the Hippocratic Oath. No similar oath is taken by politicians, of course. But suppose they did. Suppose that, before they pass any new health legislation, our political representatives were required to reexamine existing laws and make sure that government is not the cause of the very problems it attempts to solve. What w...

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office) proposes changes to the existing rules of practice to implement the inventor’s oath or declaration provisions of the LeahySmith America Invents Act. The Office proposes to revise and clarify the rules of practice relating to the inventor’s oath or declaration, including reissue oaths or declarations, assignments containing oath or declarati...

As is well known, there were no formal systems of medical ethics until the end of the eighteenth century. Yet at least from the composition of the Hippocratic Oath, western scholarly debates, particularly among doctors, on the foundations of good medical practice and behaviour produced written works. These works simultaneously reflected and contributed to setting customary rules of collective b...

CONTEXT Many of the values and behaviours described in the original Hippocratic Oath are relevant to medical education. In particular, the values of intellectual humility and respect for one's colleagues are essential in all scientific disciplines. There are three contexts within medical education from which to consider humility and respect: uncertainty; theory, and colleagues. UNCERTAINTY As...