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62 : Śramaņa, Vol 57, No. 2/April-June 2006
who attends the case has reason to be attentive to the patient as
person.26
Ramsey could be taking a page out of the Hindu medical manuals. The physician's Oath reads: "You shall assist Brahmins, venerable persons, poor people, women, widows and orphans and anyone you meet on your rounds, as if they were your relatives."27 Again, when the Vaidya enters a patient's home he is instructed : "you should not engage your speech, mind and sense organs anywhere except the patient, his well-being and other entities of the patient's body, respectively."28
The obligation to treat the patient with respect and to meet his needs follows from a philosophic understanding of the person. The individual is “an epitome of the macrocosm.” Both the microcosm and macrocosm are manifestations of Brahman. Spirit and matter are not dichotomized, but belong to “one integral whole." They share a common constitution of six elements. The last element represents the spirit or self in the individual and it is equal to Brahman in the universe 29" Similar to the office of the creator in the universe is the might of the individual soul in man. He also creates life by the act of impregnation.3" Like the diverse things present in the universe, the different entities comprising the human being are too numerous to count. There is in man as much diversity as in the world' outside.31
The moral dimension of medicine is also embodied in its aims. The goal of medicine is to build a sound mind in a sound body. This provides the necessary condition for attaining a knowledge of Brahman that leads to spiritual freedom. It is this spiritual emancipation that provides medicine with its ultimate raison d'etre. Doctors are especially obligated to see to it that the moribund patient is as pain free as possible and is left with a measure of spiritual clarity.
Finally, the moral dimension of medicine is present in the symbiosis between medicine and morals, arising out of common
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