The legally-binding equivalent of the Hippocratic Oath
<p>I have read that the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocratic_Oath" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Hippocratic Oath</a> is not actually legally binding. However, I wonder if there are certain laws that apply specifically to doctors acting in a professional extent (or perhaps beyond as well), that are somewhat equivalent to the Hippocratic Oath. I would think that a doctor mistreating a patient could suffer criminal prosecution of a different sort than that of a non-doctor mistreating a non-patient. I am not interested in civil lawsuits regarding medical malpractice here. So, what are these laws, if they exist?</p>
<p>Jurisdiction of interest is that of the US.</p>

<p>Most of the oath has no enforceable criminal law counterparts. In a number of US states, there is enforcement of the promise that &quot;I will not give to a woman a pessary to cause abortion&quot;. Also in most states, &quot;Neither will I administer a poison to anybody when asked to do so, nor will I suggest such a course&quot;, though there would need to be discussion of what a &quot;poison&quot; is. If we assume that the clause &quot;I will abstain from all intentional wrong-doing and harm&quot; is part of the original oath, that would be criminally or civilly enforceable, even against non-doctors. The obligation to teach for free is definitively not enforceable.</p>
<p>However, there do exist &quot;medical ethics&quot;, which tell doctors things that then must or must not do. The HIPAA privacy rule is one of thousand of such enforceable requirements. A doctor has a special duty of care to his patients that goes beyond ordinary person-to-person duty of care, and to the extent that some code of ethics prohibits an action by a doctor (and the doctor harms the patient), the doctor can be sued. A further action for violation of medical ethics would be suspension or revocation of the license to practice medicine.
Since you're apparently looking beyond civil actions, I assume you are referring to criminal prohibitions, but also criminal prohibitions of actions by doctors (not general &quot;don't rape&quot; prohibitions). Laws against abortion are directed against doctors, though they are written with the presumption that a non-doctor could <em>never</em> perform an abortion. Also, negligence (by anyone) could rise to the level of being a crime, e.g. in <a href="https://app.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=9A.08.010" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Washington</a> &quot;A person is criminally negligent or acts with criminal negligence when he or she fails to be aware of a substantial risk that a wrongful act may occur and his or her failure to be aware of such substantial risk constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would exercise in the same situation&quot;.</p>
<p>There are numerous things that only doctors can do, such as prescribing medicines. There are, correspondingly, prohibitions against doing those things outside of legally-prescribed boundaries, they can be prosecuted, but again prosecution of a doctor for &quot;running a drug mill&quot; is for violation of <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/21/841" rel="nofollow noreferrer">21 USC 841</a>, which everyone can be prosecuted for. As far as I know, there are no actions which are criminally prosecutable and illegal for a doctor – and no one else – to undertake.</p>

<p><a href="/questions/tagged/australia" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;australia&#39;" aria-label="show questions tagged &#39;australia&#39;" rel="tag" aria-labelledby="tag-australia-tooltip-container">australia</a></p>
<h2><a href="https://www.medicalboard.gov.au/Codes-Guidelines-Policies/Code-of-conduct.aspx" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Good medical practice: a code of conduct for doctors in Australia</a></h2>
<p>Adherence to the code is a condition of registration with the Medical Board of Australia, the body authorised by law to regulate doctors.</p>
<p>Breach of the code is not criminal although it can lead to sanctions including deregistration.</p>
<p>Doctors who commit crimes are prosecuted just like everybody else.</p>

united-states medical