Soon after his shootout with police in 2013, one of the suspected Boston Marathon bombers was taken to an area hospital with serious injuries. A reporter covering the story described how, despite the heinous crimes of which he’d been accused, doctors would work hard to save his life because they’d taken an oath to do so. I knew she was referring to the Hippocratic Oath. But I also knew she was wrong.
There was a good chance that these doctors had never taken the Hippocratic Oath, but even if they had, there’s nothing in the oath that specifically obligates them to provide care for suspected criminals.
Perhaps it should, but it doesn’t.
-WiscoDave
