Letters From Grandpa #495

• LETTER FROM GRANDPA
• 495

Dearest grandchild,

Today will be about a man named Hippocrates who is known as “The Father of Medicine.” He was born on the Island of Cos about 450 B.C. He died in Larissa Thessaly about 377 B. C. He was a contemporary of both Socrates and Plato. Both abortion and physician assisted suicide were prevalent in his day and Hippocrates dared to oppose them both. He founded a school for physicians and from his teaching we derive the “Hippocratic Oath.”

Anthropologist Margaret Mead considered this oath a turning point in civilization. In the primitive world, she said, the doctor and the sorcerer often tended to be the same person. This meant that the “healer” could also be the “killer.” One might conceivably go to the “healer” for help, not knowing that your enemy had been there first and paid him to give you poison. The Hippocratic Oath eliminated this problem. The physician became the one person you could trust regardless of rank or circumstance. The physician treated the slave the same as the emperor, the foreigner the same as the citizen, and the healthy child the same as a defective one.

Hippocrates led the way in valuing all life. His oath can be divided into three parts. The first is an invocation to the gods. The second is the physician’s responsibility to his teacher. Finally is his responsibility to his patients. Among other things the physician promised: “I will use treatment to help the sick according to my ability and judgment. But I will never use it to injure or wrong them. I will not give poison to anyone though asked to do so, nor will I suggest such a plan. Similarly I will not give a pessary to a woman to cause an abortion. But in purity an in holiness I will guard my life and my art.”

We must remember that Hippocrates was a pagan who worshiped such gods as Apollo, Asclepius, Hygeia, and Panaceia. He died almost 400 years before Jesus was born. Christians and Muslims slightly changed his oath to keep from swearing allegiance to pagan gods. For 2,000 years, however, dedicated doctors who took this oath were among the most trusted leaders in their communities. Regardless of your wealth or social standing you could trust a physician.

This all changes when doctors no longer take that oath. Ernst Ruedin, for example, is known as the “father of psychiatric genealogy”. He shared Hitler’s goal regarding the purity of “Germanic people” and warned against “the excessive compassion and love for one’s neighbor characteristic of past centuries.” Without “compassion and love” he encouraged medical students in Nazi Germany no longer take the Hippocratic Oath. This gave rise to a new generation of physicians like Dr. Josef Mengele who became known as the “angel of death.” Wikipedia states: “Mengele used Auschwitz as an opportunity to continue his anthropological studies and research into heredity, using inmates for medical experimentation. His medical experiments showed no consideration for the victims' health, safety, or physical and emotional suffering.” Consequently, many of these surgeries were performed without the benefit of anesthesia. Obviously, Mengele was delivered from “compassion and love.”

In 1973 the U. S. Supreme Court, in the infamous Roe vs. Wade decision, decided that abortion should be legal. This has resulted in over 60 millions reported abortions in the U.S. Also in 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the Hippocratic Oath as a guide to medical ethics and practice by stating that the oath is incapable of covering the latest developments and methods of medical practice and research. As of 2018 all U.S. medical school graduates take some form of public oath, but none use the original Hippocratic Oath. (As you know, in June 2022 the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health).

As you also know, the word “euthanasia” comes from “eu” (well) and “thanatos” (death). In the twisted minds of many, modern doctors killing someone is “good.” In 1870, Samuel Williams first proposed using anesthetics and morphine as something “good” to intentionally end a patient’s life. Over the next 35 years, debates about the ethics of euthanasia raged in the United States and Britain, culminating in 1906 in an Ohio bill to legalize euthanasia. Fortunately, this bill was ultimately defeated. At the present time, however, physician-assisted suicide is considered “good” and is “legal” in 10 jurisdictions in the US: Viz. - Washington, D.C., and the states of California, Colorado, Oregon, Vermont, New Mexico, Maine, New Jersey, Hawaii, and Washington.

Apparently, many do not need a doctor to kill them. According to the Center of Disease control suicide is the leading cause of death in the U.S. Suicide was responsible for 48,183 deaths in 2021. This is about one suicide every 11 minutes. The number of people who think about or attempt suicide is even higher. In 2021, an estimated 12.3 million American adults seriously thought about suicide, 3.5 million planned a suicide attempt, and 1.7 million attempted suicide.

On April 2, 2019 Christianity Today published an inspirational article God Saved Me From Suicide by Alia Joy. Her parents were missionaries and unaware of her bi-polar disorder. In desperation, Alia decided to escape from her life of “hardship” and “poverty” with a razor. She cried out to God: “I never asked to be born! I never asked for any of this! Never did I imagine that God would answer me. But he did. I found myself silenced, barefoot and open palmed, splayed like an offering across the floor. I was ready to take my own life and instead found myself laid out by God— physically knocked to the floor and flooded with a peace that to this day, I cannot fully describe. I felt the resuscitation of grace.” Death is not good, it is an enemy that will ultimately be destroyed by God!

One lesson we can learn from Alia’s testimony is that our faith must be personal. Alia derived no peace from the radiant faith of her missionary parents. In was only after her personal surrender to God that she overcame the damaging effect of her bi-polar disorder and experienced the peace that passes understanding. God is the Great Physician who seeks our good and wants us to have abundant life. You can trust Him more than any doctor. He will never do anything that will harm you. Jesus said it like this: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30 NIV)

Jesus loves you, and I love you too,

Grandpa Boyce