Why was the Hippocratic Oath Reformulated?
The Nuremberg trials demonstrated that some doctors had decided that certain human beings were of less value than others (because of race, religion, handicap, age, infirmity etc.), hence it was not unethical to experiment on and to kill them. To ensure that doctors would never again be diverted from their proper function, the code of ethics was reformulated as the Declaration of Geneva 1948. Also on December 10th the United Nations formulated the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 3 (“Everyone has the right to life..”) reinforces the Medical Declaration of Geneva. Why was the Federation founded? Dutch doctors with their experience of the necessity to dissent from the Nazi “Physicians’ Bureau” and its social hygiene measures, saw that traditional service to life was endangered. Social policies of population control being planned by the U.N. World Population Conference in Bucharest in August 1974 would include abortion, euthanasia and eugenics. The Federation was founded at a
