Dr. Michelle Zhang

Boston University School of Medicine

White Coat Ceremony, Class 2016
August 6, 2012

(181 students from 11,780 applicants) 

To become a doctor implicitly places us on the side of those who believe that the world can change.  Every medical act challenges the apparent inevitability of the world as it is and the natural history of illness, disability, and death.  People become physicians to struggle against the weight of human suffering and, thereby, place themselves squarely on the side of those who intervene in the present because they believe the future can be different.

                                                                                                                                Dr. Jonathan Mann

    

I do solemnly swear by whatever I hold most sacred, that:

I will be loyal to the profession of medicine and just and generous to its members;

I will lead my life and practice my art in uprightness and honor;
 

I will do no harm;

Into whatever house I enter it shall be for the good of the sick and the well to the utmost of my powers;

I will hold myself aloof from wrong, from corruption, and from the tempting of others to vice;

I will exercise my Art solely for the cure of my patients and the prevention of disease, and will give no drugs and perform no operation for a criminal purpose, and far less suggest such a thing;

Whatsoever I shall see or hear of the lives of men and women which is not fitting to be spoken, I will keep inviolably secret;

These things I do promise.

In proportion as I am faithful to this oath, may happiness and good repute be ever mine; the opposite if I shall be forsworn.