Hippocrates,Maimonides and the Doctor's Responsibility

Abstract

Jack Kevorkian criticizes the Hippocratic tradition in Greek medicine, which bans the physician from giving his patient a lethal medication. He sees this prohibition as potentially bringing harm to a suffering patient and not reflective of the larger Greek society which was tolerant and even approving of suicide. However, Kevorkian's advocacy of doctor-assisted suicide can be seen as the polarity of doctor abandonment of the suffering patient rather than as an antidote to it. Both positions involve an outcome of physician removal from the suffering patient, which can be contrasted with Maimonides' command to the physician to watch over the life and death of his patients.