Restriction: Must provide medical aid if able. Must not
use lethal medicine. Must keep a patient’s confidence.
While often summed up as “Do no harm,” the Hippocratic
Oath is actually a moral code that includes several
ideals. The Covenant with Patients is the best known
to the layman, where physicians pledge to do their best
to heal the sick, but confidentiality between doctor and
patient or a refusal to impart lethal treatment is close
behind. Other ethical codes the oath conveys are to
avoid sexual contact with one’s patients, to do what’s
best for the patient not the physician, and, at least in
theory, a willingness to submit to the judgment of the
gods of medicine should they become an oath-breaker.
The oath has been re-written dozens of times in history,
and many megacorps have fashioned their own readings
that allow their doctors to undertake experiments
in the name of profit. Those shadowrunners who follow
the “true” oath put healing above profit and often find
themselves out of work, or in shadow clinics, where they
struggle against the medical misdeeds of their former
comrades
