THE PHYSICIANS ROLE AND THE HIPPOCRATIC OATH

by: Allison Santiago Torres (2nd Year Law Student of San Sebastian College of Law)

The June 3, 2014 Supreme Court order granting Philippine College of Physicians (PCP) Motion
For Intervention and Extension of the Temporary Restraining Order to enjoin the implementation of
R.R. No. 4-2014 (issued by the Bureau of Internal Revenue under Commissioner Kim Henares) was
pivotal and demonstrative on assimilating the importance of high fiduciary lawyer/physician-client
relationship. The assailed administrative issuance mandates disclosure of patient/client names,
appointments and requires doctors and lawyers to post specific Rates of their services. At the very
least, the professionals who are in direct, immediate and substantial interests, are to be regarded (or
reduced) as mere service providers susceptible to association as businessmen. No doubt, the
Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP), with the intervention of PCP, contradicted such issuance
which is the Hot Spot of controversy. Nevertheless, even before delving with the delicate
connection of law and profession (both legal and medical), it is worth noting to expound on the
nature of Profession (specifically medical profession) and its accompanying duties,
responsibilities, and ethics.

Profession is defined as a vocation founded upon specialized educational training, the purpose of
which is to supply objective counsel and service to others, for a direct and definite compensation,
wholly apart from expectation of other business gain. On the other hand, Dean Roscoe Pound of
Harvard Law School opined that profession is a group of men/women pursuing a learned art in the
spirit of public service. There are various definitions associated with the word profession but one
point pulls them down to the same track- THAT IT IS FOR (PUBLIC) SERVICE AND NOT
FOR BUSINESS. As elaborated on the Petition of PCP, every medical fellow or diplomate is to
profess an Oath before the same could be admitted to the practice of medicine. Such solemn
utterance before admittance is entitled great weight that any violation of the same could be a ground
for reprimand, suspension, or dismissal. As per medical professionals, the Code of Ethics of the
Philippine Medical Association provides for several punishable acts regarding malpractice or
negligence. This Code embodies with it the values, ethics, and ideologies encompassing the great
need for confidentiality, privacy, and integrity in the practice of medicine; all of which are
ubiquitous and ingrained with the profession since time immemorial.

The contention in the Supreme Court as regards R.R. No. 4-2014 is posited on the ground that it
edicts lawyers and doctors to transcend the generally and statutorily accepted trends in the practice
of such profession as it attempts to DIVULGE/DISCLOSE/EXPOSE sensitive information. The
plaintiffs believe that it is obnoxious and contradictory to the principles and ethics of the medical
profession founded on love of life, knowledge, and honesty. Such argument is based on The
Hippocratic Oath, aged thousands of years ago, which up to now has supplicated us with the
commandments of necessitating the value of treating the sick, the dissemination of knowledge about
treating, the preservation of life, the temperance from committing evils, and the pertinence of
PRIVACY regarding ALL that may come to the knowledge of a physician. A wise man now could
ponder and inquire- what then is the True role of a physician or doctor? Why is there a need for a
solemn undertaking before being admitted to the practice of medicine?

As elucidated in the Hippocratic Oath, there shall be no oblivion with the true purpose/role of
physicians in the World. Some of the interjections in the Oath provide that a doctor shall: prescribe
regimes for the good of his patients, do no harm to anyone, preserve the purity of his life and his art,
give no deadly medicine/pessary to cause a woman abortion. As the generations succeeded the
other, international and local efforts were formed and recognised to significantly preserve such
doctrines for the betterment of the practice of medicine. In the Philippines, the provisions of the
Philippine Medical Act, the PMA Code of Ethics and other various medical specialty canons carry
with it the fundamentals and principles laid out in the Hippocratic Oath. In addition, it is provided
in the Petition of the PCP that Sec. 24, par. (c), Rule 130 of the Rules of Court prohibits a physician
from testifying on matters which he may have acquired in attending to a patient in a professional
capacity. These are realisations that the longtime-honoured virtues of the Medical profession is
safeguarded not only by the binding effect of the Oath but as well as the statutes and rules provided
by the State or its branches for the protection of society; most especially from threatened invasion
of their privacy. To deduce, it is not only the role of the doctors to treat their patients; they are also
obligated to keep inviolate the confidence of their clients as regards the delicate information on
their present health conditions. Clearly, the import of the Oath and the law is that convalescence
and/or treatment of the illness of a patient is not the end of the story- it continues inevitably and
indefinitely for the relationship of the patient and the doctor involves reposed trust and confidence.
Thus, to mandate the lawyer and doctor to provide a detailed list of patient names, appointments,
and rate cards would be iniquitous not only to the time-honoured essence of the oath but as well as
to the statutes and rules of the Court which have been in existence safeguarding the medical
profession.

In sum, my opinion rests on the matter that the Medical practitioners role is not only confined in
the treatment of a patient, or the prescription of medicine, or the scheduling of future appointments
for diagnosis etc. What to my mind protrudes is that the doctors, universally speaking, play a vital
and significant role in the society for without them, chances are: age span would be shorter,
contagion would spread like wildfire, and life would be tedious. Technically speaking, this life we
enjoy could be preserved and improved through the science and art of medicine- which only those
who are learned with such profession could practice. But, practice alone is not enough, it should
also conform to the postulate that the service to be provided is NOT FOR GAIN. Compensation for
treating the ill shall not be the basis for the practice of medicine because Like the legal profession,
earning a livelihood in the medical profession is MERELY INCIDENTAL. Another point rests on
the fact that the value of privilege communication is also encapsulated in the profession of medicine
therefore emphasising another role of doctors;which is to be a holder of secret/confidences. Last but
not the least, I humbly submit that this is the most important role of the doctors- To serve God and
his creations. Not only that doctors were helped by God to become whoever they are then/now, they
were DEVOTED as the extensions of His hands in healing the sick, the poor and the oppressed.

Therefore, as the Motion for Intervention of the PCP was granted by the Supreme Court, it is of
great pleasure and honour to have had the Counsel of the PCP in the proceedings as my professor in
the discourse of Legal Medicine. As encrypted in the petition, there are bunches of jurisprudential
doctrines as well as statutes and/or issuances that would very much support the needed evidence to
persuade the Supreme Court to annul and declare as unconstitutional/infirm the issuance of the BIR.
I also extend my expression of luck to the plaintiffs as the defendants are also of great competence
in the area of law. I just do hope and pray for God to enlighten the minds of the parties with His will
and that will be done in accordance to His pleasure. May the true essence of the Hippocratic Oath,
the values embodied in the Code of Ethics of PMA, and the vital Role of doctors be upheld,
recognised and protected.