Medical ethics [in Charaka philosophy]

The most striking aspect of Caraka’s ethics is that he was highly conscious of the moral obligations of medical professionals to society. He cautions them to keep the moral standards intact. He says that a physician should always be a great humanist. He must primarily possess knowledge, imagination, comprehension, memory, resourcefulness and promptness;^[1] must be prudent, must have self-restraint, and must be endowed with presence of mind.^[2] A physician must also have a clear knowledge of drugs and their applications. Even a deadly poison can become an excellent drug if properly administered and, on the contrary, if it is not properly administered, it will be a deadly poison. So, if the physician is not competent in these aspects, his prescription would be nothing but poison, a weapon, fire or a thunderbolt to his patient, for it kills him.^[3] He also warns that even a talk with a physician who is an impostor devoid of vitruous acts will be the messenger of death.^[4]

He repeatedly insists on the quality of the head and the heart and the need to be careful about giving quarter to quacks, imposters and charlatans. It is better to die rather than to be treated by a quack physician.^[5] Such physicians who take away the life instead of diseases are called rogābhisāras.^[6] The physician should show compassion towards the ailing, should have devotion to patients who can be cured, but be detached from the dying patients.^[7] Genuine physicians are saviours of life (prāṇābhisāras).^[8]