The moral precepts embodied in the Hippocratic oath, which physicians standardly affirm upon beginning medical practice, have long been considered the immutable bedrock of medical ethics, binding physicians in a moral community that reaches across temporal, cultural, and national barriers. Until very recently the promises expressed in that oath—for example to act physicians in ancient Greece and that for centuries it was not uniformly accepted by medical practitioners.
This historical issue may be dismissed at the outset as irrelevant to the oath’s current appropriateness. Regardless of the specific origin of its text—which, admittedly, is at best uncertain—those in each generation who critically appraise its content and judge it to express valid principles of medical ethics become, in a more meaningful within the confines of one’s expertise, which remains a necessary safeguard for patients’ safety and well-being.
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Your task
Capture the passage's overall primary point — the claim everything else supports.
Common trap
Answers that are true but too narrow (a single paragraph) or too broad (beyond the passage's scope).
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Summarize the whole passage in one sentence first, then match it to a choice.
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