<P> Its general ethical principles are also found in other works of the Corpus: the Physician mentions the obligation to keep the' holy things' of medicine within the medical community (i.e. not to divulge secrets); it also mentions the special position of the doctor with regard to his patients, especially women and girls . However, several aspects of the Oath contradict patterns of practice established elsewhere in the Corpus . Most notable is its ban on the use of the knife, even for small procedures such as lithotomy, even though other works in the Corpus provide guidance on performing surgical procedures . </P> <P> Providing poisonous drugs would certainly have been viewed as immoral by contemporary physicians if it resulted in murder . However, the absolute ban described in the Oath also forbids euthanasia . Several accounts of ancient physicians willingly assisting suicides have survived . Multiple explanations for the prohibition of euthanasia in the Oath have been proposed: it is possible that not all physicians swore the Oath, or that the Oath was seeking to prevent widely held concerns that physicians could be employed as political assassins . </P> <P> The Oath's prohibition of abortion is also not found in contemporary medical texts . The Hippocratic text On the Nature of the Child contains a description of an abortion, without any implication that it was morally wrong, and descriptions of abortifacient medications are numerous in the ancient medical literature . 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 . Scribonius Largus was adamant in 43 AD (the earliest surviving reference to the oath) that it preclude abortion . </P> <P> As with Scribonius Largus, there seemed to be no question to Soranus that the Hippocratic Oath prohibits abortion, although apparently not all doctors adhered to it strictly in his time . According to Soranus' 1st or 2nd century AD work Gynaecology, one party of medical practitioners banished all abortives as required by the Hippocratic Oath; the other party--to which he belonged--was willing to prescribe abortions, but only for the sake of the mother's health . </P>

Who was the greek physician that established a code of ethics