NEW DELHI: The Indian Medical Association (IMA) is against replacing replace the Hippocratic Oath with Charak Shapath, a controversial step proposed by National Medical Commission (NMC).
The largest organisation of doctors in India with over three lakh members described the move as “unacceptable and ill-advised”.
Representatives of IMA will have a meeting with Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Sunday and tell him what they feel.
“We are meeting the minister on February 20. We will urge him not to replace the oath. We will make him understand that there is no need for such a controversy at a time when doctors are at the forefront of battling Covid. I am sure he will understand and not agree to replace the oath,” IMA national president Dr Sahajanand Prasad Singh said.
The NMC, in its undergraduate board meeting last week, had discussed a proposal with medical colleges to replace the Hippocratic Oath taken by medical students with Charak Shapath. Named after the founder of Ayurveda, the Shapath lays down a code of conduct for healers in ancient Indian medicines. The proposal has been circulated to medical colleges for their feedback.
“It is unfortunate that such a move has come when Indian doctors have fought three waves of Covid with courage and determination. The NMC move is unacceptable and ill-advised,” Singh said. He added that tampering with the identity of modern medicine is “nothing but sacrilege.”
NMC is trying to erase the identity of modern medicine and replace it with the “identity and legacy of a different system of medicine which is a betrayal of the profession,” Singh asserted.
Kavita Bajeli-Datt