Being admitted to the profession of veterinary medicine, I solemnly swear to use my scientific knowledge and skills for the benefit of society through the protection of animal health, the relief of animal suffering, the conservation of animal resources, the promotion of public health, and the advancement of medical knowledge.The new oath:
Being admitted to the profession of veterinary medicine, I solemnly swear to use my scientific knowledge and skills for the benefit of society through the protection of animal health and welfare, the prevention and relief of animal suffering, the conservation of animal resources, the promotion of public health, and the advancement of medical knowledge.I have never cared for the oath because of that second sentence.....which places the "benefit of society" ahead of any duty to their patients. It has only taken this long to add the notion of the welfare of the patient to the oath, maybe.....someday.....their primary duty will be to their patients.
But hey, change is change, movement is movement and I see this as some slight movement in a good direction for the animal people they are supposed to care for.
Bea Elliot over at her blog Provoked first stimulated me to think about veterinarians and their strange profession. I say strange because somebody that also eats or otherwise exploits their patients.....well....I have a hard time wrapping my mind around the notion that this sort of somebody is a practitioner of the "healing arts" in a consistent and genuine sense of the word.
Imagine if human animals enslaving and/or eating other human animals was a common and accepted behavior.
Which sort of doctor would you want caring for you....one that enslaved and/or ate human animals or one that abjured such behavior and avoided any use or maltreatment of sentient beings? One that thought human animals were property or one that thought human animals should be free to live their lives as they see fit?
Veterinarians are subject to the same hodgepodge of inconsistencies, delusions, lies and mind-warping as the rest of us (about other animals)....such mental and emotional gyrations being part of the structure that maintains our exploitation of living beings and our planet. But their profession puts them in a special situation and hence....to my mind....places a more stringent demand on them. Practitioners of the "healing arts" should not also be exploiters of their patients (no matter what sort of sentient being their patient happens to be).
I urge you to read these posts (link1, link2, link3, link4, link5) at Provoked for a more thorough exploration of the culturally induced and supported schisms associated with the practice of veterinary medicine. Bea has done an admirable job of exploring a significant "blindness to bizarreness" that floats along in the world and is rarely noticed, much less commented on.
Living a life where avoiding, as much as is practical and possible, the exploitation or use of any sentient being for any purpose seems to me to be how you would have to live to be a good physician no matter what form your patients took. The highest duty of such a practitioner should be to their patient........not their pocketbook, or their stomach, or their ego, or their society, or, or, or ad infinitum.......
