Fadahunsi (part 4)

The Hippocratic Oath is achaic, loathsome and has since been replaced with what has come to be known as the Physicians' Oath.

Compliance with such...or indeed any other regulation....comes with certain reciprocities....

Inter alia, this Oath mandates and behoves seniors to treat their juniors as their brothers and wards and render assistance to them as much as they can...not bully them!

In reciprocity, it equally counsels "juniors" to accord their seniors and teachers due respect whenever they encounter them in professional and social settings!

I am sure there was no blind dogma at the back of the minds of the legal draugtsmen who penned those laws!

But sustained and pervasive bullying in our medical institutions continues to create more future bullies in an unending fashion...breeding callous doctors....who place less emphasis on empathizing with weaker vessels...including their patients!

Besides, mere mention of the fact of bullying of future doctors and medical specialists-in-training cannot, by any modicum of rationally, be construed as disrespect to professional seniors!

Any senior who cares less about the welfare of his juniors and goes out of his way to do him severe injustice cannot command his juniors' respect!

He may not expect the respect of his juniors even on moral grounds.

If he must perpetrate evil, he may not complain that some juniors summon up enough courage to bring his atrocities to the attention of the public...or responsive authorities!

Argued at the premise of EQUITY, those who come to equity must come with clean hands!

And respect, they say, is reciprocal....
I need nobody to remind me of what my professional Oath requires of me...

Dr Tosin Akindele is a medical practitioner and public affairs analyst.