From The New England Journal of Medicine The Hippocratic Oath, like Handel's Messiah, is heard once a year. At medical school graduation ceremonies around the nation, 20,000 voices intone modernized, bowdlerized versions of the ancient pledge. For the rest of the year, it goes silent, except for an occasional invocation of one or another of its phrases to make a point about a contentious issue, such as assisted suicide or abortion. Many contemporary medical ethicists dismiss it as antiquated and irrelevant or condemn it as an insidious endorsement of medical paternalism. Steven Miles wishes to pluck the oath out of its ritualistic niche, refurbish its meaning, and show its relevance for modern medical ethics. Miles is neither a classical scholar nor a historian of medicine. He is a practicing internist, a leader in the field of medical ethics, and a voice in health policy. (He also ran a creditable primary campaign for a Senate seat.) He has immersed himself in the literature about the origins and exegesis of the oath and works through its phrases with admirable skill. Although a proper historian might criticize an occasional interpretation of the author's, Miles's reading of the oath is illuminating. He attempts to place this mysterious document, written 2400 years ago by unknown hands, in the cultural context of Greek medicine and morality. However, his chief concern is to reveal the oath's relevance for the practice of medicine and for health policy in the modern world. U