the ethics of health

I come from a western nation that is smaller and more isolated than most, but more balanced in many respects 

In Aotearoa/New Zealand, we have two official spoken languages- English and Maori; two main political forces- monetarist and welfare; the first country in the world to have women voters; equally dominant rural and urban economies; even two main islands!  

That, to me, is the kiwi advantage in the modern world; we are innovators not necessarily bound by one dominant view of the world

In that light, I would like to share an alternative viewpoint with you; that balance is the true currency of health  
This is a notion that I find most Asians also believe, given that Yin and Yang are culturally ingrained balancing factors in everyday life

It's not a notion shared by the western world I was born into, however

Why?

The Hippocratic Oath is a noble document that has been worn thin of compassion by industrial aged adaptations (Thomas Percival in England, 1794; the American Medical Association, 1846; Nuremburg Code, 1947; Declaration of Geneva, 1948; and the Oath of Lasagna, 1964)

'Let food be thy medicine' is now a watery 'Let food be thy fuel & forget the medicine part'

Sun Si Miao’s Oath ‘On the Absolute Sincerity of Great Physicians’  forms the 'TCM' Traditional Chinese Medicine oath

Like the Hippocratic Oath, it has been in use more than 1500 years  

Unlike the Hippocratic Oath, it has remained unchanged

Both ‘main ethical principles focus on compassion, justice, beneficence and humility’[1] yet we can see the Hippocratic Oath, alone, incorporating matters of commerce, contracts and the ethics of privacy[2] alongside health from its very beginning. 

'A Great Physician should not pay attention to status, wealth or age; neither should he question whether the particular person is attractive or unattractive, whether he is an enemy or friend, whether he is a Chinese or a foreigner, or finally, whether he is uneducated or educated
He should meet everyone on equal grounds
He should always act as if he were thinking of his close relatives'

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[1] SY Tan, Singapore Medical Journal, 2002, Vol. 43 (5): 224-225

[2] www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/greek/greek_oath.html