Replacing Hippocratic Oath is Unacceptable, attempt of Mixopathy: IMA

Calling this move to be completely "unacceptable", IMA has further termed it to be "a blatant attempt at introducing Mixopathy".

Although IMA is hopeful to get this issue sorted after the discussion with the Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, it has also expressed to take the course of democratic agitation if the problem persists.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that introducing a major change in the MBBS curriculum, the NMC had recently proposed to replace the centuries-old Hippocratic Oath with the Charakh Shapath.

Also Read: NMC plans to replace Hippocratic Oath with Charak Shapath, Mixed reactions from Doctors

The confirmation regarding this came from the Minutes of NMC discussion with all the medical colleges in India, which was reportedly chaired by Dr. Aruna V Vanikar, the President of the UG Medical Education Board of NMC.

The Minutes of the meeting dated 07.02.2022, which has spread like fire on the social media platforms, mentioned, "No Hippocratic Oath. During white coat ceremony (with parents) the oath will be "Maharshi Charak Shapath" present in NMC website."

As per the Minutes, these changes are going to be implemented from February 14, 2022.

However, soon after the Minutes of the meeting spread on social media platforms, doctors across the country expressed their strong opposition to it. Some of the doctors questioned how the students of modern medicine can take an oath in the name of someone belonging to Indian System of Medicine.

Now, the Indian Medical Association has also come forward and has expressed similar views. Terming it to be an attempt at Mixopathy, Dr. J. A Jayalal, the former president of the association told Medical Dialogues, "The suggestion of introducing Charakh Shapath into modern medicine is a blatant attempt to introduce Mixopathy which IMA opposes whole heartedly. We have nothing against any system of medicine but he way of putting in someone else's name in the place of Hippocratic Oath is unacceptable."

However, as per Dr. Jayalal, the reason for this opposition is not simply the fact that it belongs to a different school of medicine. He also pointed out that unlike the Hippocratic Oath, the newly proposed Charak Shapath hasn't been amended with time.

"The Hippocratic Oath is a traditional oath based on which all the modern medical practitioners are taking their oath during their induction into the medical education and also when they are registering their names with the respective council. Although this oath is quite older one it has gone through several amendments and the last amendment was done in 2017 which was recommended by the World Medical Association," pointed out Dr. Jayalal.

"However, Charak Shapath, which is now being proposed is a traditional oath from the Ayurvedic System. We respect the Maharshi who had introduced that and it belongs to the age of BC around 400. It has not gone through any amendments and changes. Important things like the rights of the doctors, patient charter have not been included in it. On the other hand, these things are a part of the new consult, which is the Geneva declaration of the Hippocratic Oath," he added.

He further opined that before implementing such a major change, the NMC should consider taking public opinion regarding the matter and discuss it with the medical stakeholders.

"Even if this gets implemented, first the public opinion should be taken in this matter and the issue should be discussed with the entire medical fraternity and its stakeholders. Only after that a decision should be taken in this regard," he said.

"We are going to meet the Health Minister and explain to him the facts and we sincerely hope that the Health Minister will listen to this and put a stop to this. If that doesn't happen, then definitely IMA will take the resort of all the democratic agitation processes to deal with this," added Dr. Jayalal.

While speaking to Medical Dialogues, the president of IMA, Dr. Sahajanand Pd. Singh confirmed the meeting with the Health Minister and said, "We are going to meet the Union Health Minister on the evening of February 20. We will discuss the matter concerning Hippocratic Oath and several other issues as well and we are one hundred percent positive and the minister will sort out all the problems."

"In medical sciences, we are all in favour of Hippocratic Oath. There is no such hurry to replace it with something else. So, why this controversy? We do not want any controversies at the present moment," he added.