Lessons in medical ethics from ancient Indian teachers

Age of medicine is as old as the age of human on the earth. The doctor today is a scientist, technologist and healer at the same time. The ethics germane to the medical profession can’t be simple and uniform. Nor is the ethics simply a matter between the doctor and the patient; the society with its entire economic and political dimension is involved in much bigger way. Certain basic traditional thoughts given by ancient Indian teachers like Hippocrates, Charaka, Sushrutha and Vagbhata are still become relevant. Medical ethics in the medical curriculum, must be included not as a normative discipline but as a practical course with its own problems and considerations. As per Indian outlook, the role of ethics is certainly vast and varied, from treating a common cold, to the controversy on euthanasia, from the simple obligations of a family doctor, to the specialist services in the high cost, high technology five star nursing homes.