Thank you, Honeybee13. Now all I have to do is come up with ideas of my own for the next 16 posts, rather than steal from the ancient Greeks? Preposterous. Will do my best though.

[This is the third time I'm trying to post this as the site keeps telling me that I'm not allowed to post links. Here it goes:] Thinking of the issue at hand, I wondered whether we should post the Hippocratic Oath here. We should and here it is, in its original version (this might sound anachronistic and a tad Monty-Pythonesque but it was written 2500 years ago and in those days everyone was expected to sound quaintish) and the modern one which should be closer to our idea of the physician. Oath text The Hippocratic Oath has been updated by the Declaration of Geneva.. In the United Kingdom the General Medical Council provides clear modern guidance in the form of its Duties of a Doctor and Good Medical Practice statements. Modern version A widely used modern version of the traditional oath was penned in 1964 by Dr. Louis Lasagna. I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant: I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow. I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures [that] are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism . I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug. I will not be ashamed to say "I know not", nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient's recovery. I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given to me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God. I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person's family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick. I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure. I will remember that I remain a member of society with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm. If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help.

Greek greetings to this noble thread. For noble 'tis to fight prejudice, challenge stereotypes, drag consciences from darkness into the light of logic and free will. In the olden days, well, even in the sixties in our hellish Hellenic heliotropic case, when the majority of people in villages were still illiterate, they would consult the doctor, the priest or the teacher when it came to serious issues, even ones not in their jurisdiction. That status has still not been lost, it seems, and continues to plague the very sensitive relationships with the aforementioned 'servants of the people'. When in need, one tends to succumb to the power of the one with power over one's life or afterlife(!). Unfortunately, abuse may ensue. I can see how some doctors, taking Wilde completely out of context, might argue: "How else but through a broken heart may Lord Christ enter in?" (Ballad of Reading Gaol, no?), and make it their business to 'save souls' rather than treat ailing bodies. The presumption!

These concerns are not new. I've just remembered the bit from the Scottish play where the physician and the gentlewoman are discussing Lady Macbeth's behaviour: Doctor ...what, at any 13 time, have you heard her say? Gentlewoman 14 That, sir, which I will not report after her. Doctor 15 You may to me, and 'tis most meet you 16 should. Gentlewoman 17 Neither to you nor any one; having no witness 18 to confirm my speech.

Dear nolegion, - - - It seems that no Greek priest coming at you with their recently purchased ipad (to use at christenings instead of the traditional, and oh, so passe, printed evangelical word in the case that hit the press last week) could distract you from the taunts of dark red tape practices.- - - I've just read through 204 and 207 and was duly enraged. I then went on to read the first page and recognised you in it, kicking against the right pricks. How brave of you to bring your personal ordeal to the attention of other tormented souls but also how fortunate that out of such blatant malpractice (if that's the right word - excuse the awkward use of your beautiful language) some good may come. If Greek doctors were audio-recorded every time they openly insult a patient and every time they, ruthlessly yet nonchalantly, demand, in no uncertain terms, a few thousand euros in a knee-crooking envelope (the "fakelaki" of some Clevedon late night) half an hour before an operation of a member of one's family, or else they won't let the anaesthetist go near the patient, we'd have long ago sent out a commision for more crates of digital audio-recorders and more heads ("If you head and hang all that offend that way, you'll be glad to send a commision for more heads.", or words to that effect. Isn't that Measure for Measure?)