Islamic Code of Medical Ethics

reprinted in Encyclopedia of Bioethics 2705 (Warren Thomas Reich, et al. eds., rev. ed. 1995).



The Physician's Oath

I swear by God, The Great;

To regard God in carrying out my profession;

To protect human life in all stages and under all circumstances, doing my utmost to rescue it from death, malady, pain, and anxiety;

To keep people's dignity, cover their privacies and lock up their secrets;

To be, all the way, an instrument of God's mercy, extending my medical care to near and far, virtuous and sinner and friend and enemy;

To strive in the pursuit of knowledge and harnessing it for the benefit but not the harm of mankind;

To revere my teacher, teach my junior, and be brother to members of the medical profession joined in piety and charity;

To live my Faith in private and in public, avoiding whatever blemishes me in the eyes of God, His apostle and my fellow Faithful;

And may God be witness to this Oath.