Editing Hippocratic Oath (section)

=== Abortion ===
The oath contains a prohibition of abortion, which contradicts another Hippocratic text ''On the Nature of the Child'', which contains a description of an abortion, without any implication that it was morally wrong,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Lonie|first1=Iain M.|title=The Hippocratic treatises, "On generation," "On the nature of the child," "Diseases IV" a commentary|date=1981|publisher=De Gruyter|location=Berlin|isbn=978-3-11-086396-3|page=7}}</ref> and descriptions of abortifacient medications are numerous in the ancient medical literature.<ref>{{cite book|last1=King|first1=Helen|title=Hippocrates' woman: reading the female body in ancient Greece|date=1998|publisher=Routledge|location=London|isbn=978-0-415-13895-6|pages=132–156}}</ref> 

The oath's stance on abortion was unclear even in the ancient world where physicians debated whether the specification of pessaries was a ban on simply [[Pessary|pessaries]], or a blanket ban on all abortion methods:<ref name=":0">{{Cite thesis |title=The "Hippocratic" Stance on Abortion: The Translation, Interpretation, and Use of the Hippocratic Oath in the Abortion Debate from the Ancient World to Present-Day |url=https://qspace.library.queensu.ca/handle/1974/24465 |date=2018 |degree=Master of Arts |language=en |first=Olivia |last=De Brabandere |publisher=Queen's University |pages=3–4, 7, 58}}</ref> In the earliest surviving reference to the oath, written in 43 AD, [[Scribonius Largus]] was adamant that it precluded abortion.<ref name=Largus/> In the 1st or 2nd century AD work ''Gynaecology'', [[Soranus of Ephesus]] wrote that one party of medical practitioners followed the Oath and banished all abortifacients, while the other party—to which he belonged—was willing to prescribe abortions, but only for the sake of the mother's health.<ref name=Largus>[http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/aconite/largus.html "Scribonius Largus"]</ref><ref name=Soranus>{{cite book|last1=Soranus, Owsei Temkin|title=Soranus' Gynecology|date=1956|publisher=JHU Press|location=I.19.60|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YsKWfh31gxwC&q=soranus%20gynecology%20digital&pg=PR1|access-date=6 October 2015|isbn=978-0-8018-4320-4}}</ref> [[William Henry Samuel Jones]] believes that, although the oath prohibited abortions, it may not have been condemned under all circumstances.<ref name=":0" /> [[John M. Riddle]] argues that because Hippocrates specified pessaries, he only meant pessaries and therefore it was acceptable for a Hippocratic doctor to perform abortions using oral drugs, violent means, a disruption of daily routine or eating habits, and more. Other scholars, most notably [[Ludwig Edelstein]], believe that the author intended to prohibit any and all abortions.<ref name=":0" /> Olivia De Brabandere writes that regardless of the author's original intention, the vague and polyvalent nature of the relevant line has allowed both professionals and non-professionals to interpret and use the oath in several ways.<ref name=":0" /> While many Christian versions of the Hippocratic Oath, particularly from the Middle Ages, explicitly prohibited abortion, the prohibition is often omitted from many oaths taken in US medical schools today, though it remains controversial.<ref name="swear by"/>