this post was submitted on 19 Oct 2023
402 points (96.5% liked)
xkcd
8867 readers
17 users here now
A community for a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Its more “like first weigh the possible harm versus the potential benefit and do not pursue treatment avenues that are more likely to harm than do good”. If it were truly just “first do no harm”, medicine would not be practicable, because any intervention carries risks of some nature, don’t even get me started on oncology.
It is also worth noting that “first do no harm” is not even all that close to the wording of the actual oath, originally it is in fact more like what I typed out above.