A New Hippocratic Oath Asks Doctors To Fight Racial Injustice And Misinformation

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November 4th, 2020

Health care professionals gather outside Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis to demonstrate in support of the Black Lives Matter movement on June 5. The demonstration, called ‘White Coats for Black Lives,’ was organized to show solidarity with those protesting the death of George Floyd after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers on May 25.

Jeff Roberson / AP

First-year medical student Sean Sweat “didn’t want to tiptoe around” issues of race when she sat down with 11 of her classmates to write a new version of the medical profession’s venerable Hippocratic oath.

“We start our medical journey amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, and a national civil rights movement reinvigorated by the killings of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery,” begins the alternate version of the oath, rewritten for the class of 2024 at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

It continues: “We honor the 700,000+ lives lost to COVID-19, despite the sacrifices of health care workers.”

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