Like the majority of my colleagues, I recited a version of the Hippocratic Oath early in my medical education. Though not all versions of the Oath are the same, some themes are consistent. Primum Non-Nocere – First Do No Harm – is perhaps the best known of these. At the individual patient level, interpretation is fairly straightforward: do not prescribe any treatment which may harm the patient, at least not out of proportion to the benefit of that treatment
