The Evolution of Medicine

The Evolution of Medicine

By: Shelby Bagby

Before being able to practice medicine on actual patients, doctors are required to be sworn in under oath – the Hippocratic Oath, which is modified each year. The earliest version I could find is a translation from Greek from the year of 1943, “…I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Similarly, I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy” (Edelstein). Dr. Van Helsing’s ethics, as well as Dr. Seward’s ethics come into question in terms of the standards of the oath to which they were sworn in, assuming that they did indeed swear under oath to uphold these standards.

The night that the Crew of Light searched to find the vampire-version of Lucy, Dr. Seward declares that when he saw Lucy, he knew that “she then had to be killed, [he] could have done it with savage delight” (188). What does that say about the kind of doctor he is, given that he is not only killing a patient, which the oath states is against the standard of practice, but he also does it with a smile!? He even acknowledges that as Lucy lay in her coffin, he notices her “corporeal body as real at the moment as [their] own,” which brings further questioning into Dr. Seward’s ethics. How can he be so content with killing a woman that he loves and that still appears to look so human?

The staking scene of Lucy also makes the reader wonder, ‘What kind of doctors are Dr. Seward and Dr. Helsing?’ Picture this: “operating knives…and last a round wooden stake, some two and a half or three inches thick and about three feet long” (190). Three feet long is as long as my leg! Are all of those tools actually necessary to kill this ‘undead’ Lucy, or are the doctors simply enjoying a devilish surgery, using Lucy’s body as their experimental cadaver in a tomb lab? Dr. Seward even comments, “to me, a doctor’s preparations for work of any kind are stimulating and bracing, but the effect of these things on both Arthur and Quincey was to cause them a sort of consternation” (190). Consternation means “feelings of anxiety or dismay,” according to Google. Therefore, even in Dr. Seward’s eyes, not all of these tools were necessary, but rather a scare tactic for the other men in the group. That goes against the modern medical standard of, “First Do No Harm.” Furthermore, Dr. Van Helsing doesn’t even do the staking himself! He lets a novice, Arthur, complete the task and simply walks him through it. If there are two qualified doctors present, why would you ever let a person with no medical training perform this so-called medical procedure?

How would this situation have looked in the present day? First of all, Dr. Van Helsing and Dr. Seward would be carrying loads of malpractice insurance! Luckily for them, the only living relative of Lucy is her husband, Arthur, who has solicited their help. Therefore, only distant cousins or other relatives would be a concern for legal purposes, unless of course a police officer found them. Next, this is essentially medical euthanasia, which is not legal in all of Europe today. If anyone would have found these doctors killing a patient they claim to be “undead,” their medical licenses would be legally scrutinized, and possibly revoked. Lastly, the procedure is being performed in a graveyard, and entering graveyards at night is typically considered trespassing. These doctors, and even the spectators, would all be legally liable for what happened to Lucy. On the other hand, killing Lucy is preventing others from turning into vampires. Do the ends justify the means? 

Works Cited

Translation from Greek by Ludwig Edelstein. From The Hippocratic Oath: Text, Translation, and Interpretation, by Ludwig Edelstein. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1943.