Turkey’s prestigious medical school’s dean removes 'sexual identity' from Hippocratic Oath

At the graduation ceremony of Çapa Faculty of Medicine on June 21, the dean censored the expression of sexual orientation in the Hippocratic Oath recited by young physicians before they start their profession, but the new graduates read the text in full.

Wednesday June 21 2023 08:20 pm

Duvar English

The dean of Istanbul’s prestigious Çapa Faculty of Medicine has censored the expression of sexual orientation from the Physician’s Pledge, known as the Hippocratic Oath, that is recited during the graduation ceremony. Graduating medical students on June 21 did not allow censorship and recited the oath with the full text.

The Medical Students' Section of the Turkish Medical Association shared a video from the graduation ceremony on its Twitter account and said, "Any change that may lead to discrimination in the Physician’s Pledge is an ethical violation and a crime!” The students reminded the principles adopted with the Declaration of Geneva and called their colleagues to protect the values of medicine.

Çapa Tıp Fakültesi mezuniyet töreninde Hekimlik Andı okunurken cinsel yönelim ifadesini dekan sansürledi. Tıp öğrencisi sıra arkadaşlarımız sansüre geçit vermedi, andı eksiksiz biçimde okudu.

Hekimlik andı üzerinde ayrımcılığa yol açabilecek her değişiklik etik ihlal ve suçtur! pic.twitter.com/RnTgPqoOdK
— Tıp Öğrencileri Kolu (@ttbtok) June 21, 2023

The Declaration of Geneva was first adopted by the World Medical Association in 1948 and took its last form in 2017. The Physician’s Pledge states, “I (as a physician) will not permit considerations of age, disease or disability, creed, ethnic origin, gender, nationality, political affiliation, race, sexual orientation, social standing or any other factor to intervene between my duty and my patient (...)”

In previous years, many faculty administrations tried to censor the Physician’s Pledge; nonetheless, students refused to accept the censorship.