History Main / InconvenientHippocraticOath

* ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'': [[Film/DoctorStrange2016 Dr Stephen Strange]] is shown in his solo outing to take his oath very seriously and because of it is one of the least willing of his Avengers teammates to [[ThouShallNotKill kill people]]. He's explicitly killed one person (and was unnerved to have to do it) between his aforementioned solo movie and ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar''. Though this all goes out the window in [[spoiler: ''Film/AvengersEndgame''. Strange is the person who lays the plan out to ultimately kill Thanos and he kills Thanos's forces in the FinalBattle as a GodzillaThreshold. It should be noted that the other two characters who hadn't killed people, ComicBook/SpiderMan and ComicBook/TheWasp, also lay waste to a ton of Thanos's forces.]]

* This was originally ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' villain the Crime Doctor's schtick; a surgeon turned gang boss who refused to hurt anyone, and abandoned a burglary in progress to ''save Robin's life''. Judging from his appearance in ''[[ComicBook/SecretSix Villains United]]'', though, if those stories are still in continuity, he's changed his mind.
* Averted in one of the most notorious comics of recent years, ''ComicBook/BatmanWarGames''. Batman takes a dying [[ComicBook/Batgirl2009 Stephanie Brown]] to his maternal figure, Dr Leslie Thompkins (who should be noted was a friend of his parents his dad met in medical school). Instead of treating Stephanie, she let her die [[AesopCollateralDamage to prove her point about how kids shouldn't be fighting crime.]] [[BrokenAesop Despite Stephanie having started crime-fighting as Spoiler before becoming part of the Batfamily]]. Due to outcry, it was changed to her faking Stephanie's death and sending her out of the country for her protection.

* ''VideoGame/TraumaCenter'': It happens to CR-S01 twice. The first time it happened CR did not think to escape only Ian thought he would. The second time the trope is invoked word for word. CR is there, he sees a man fall he sees Ian on the surgery side and the exit on the other. In both cases, he chooses to help the patient.

* Inverted in ''Series/Forever2014''; in the episode "New York Kids", a flashback to the 1950s sees immortal Doctor Henry Morgan attempt to save a man who was shot in a botched robbery, despite the fact that he was injured himself, but when he hears other people coming, Henry crawls away to hide and basically leaves his would-be patient to die in order to preserve his secret, this accident prompting him to officially abandon practising medicine until the present day.

* In an episode of ''Series/{{ER}}'', an Eastern European immigrant working as a janitor with a WorthlessForeignDegree in medicine jumped in to stabilize a patient, then fled in terror convinced she would be arrested/deported or at least lose any chance of getting herself recertified as a Doctor in the 'States.

*** In "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E12TheHighGround]] Dr. Crusher won't leave wounded people for the Rutian medics, even as Worf, Data and Picard point out the risks of sticking around a bombing site. She gets captured as a result.

* In ''Film/TheGreatestShowOnEarth'', [[SadClown Buttons]], on the run for MercyKilling his wife, breaks his cover to treat people injured in the trainwreck at the end of the movie, whereupon he is recognized immediately and arrested in the penultimate scene.
* In ''Film/TheFugitive'', Kimble sneaks into a hospital disguised as a janitor and happens across a kid who's been misdiagnosed and needs emergency surgery. He quickly forges the necessary forms and gets the patient to the right department. It almost gets him caught but it's the first thing to tip Gerard off to the possibility of Kimble's innocence.
* ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'': [[Film/DoctorStrange2016 Dr Stephen Strange]] is shown in his solo outing to take his oath very seriously and because of it is one of the least willing of his Avengers teammates to [[ThouShallNotKill kill people]]. He's explicitly killed one person (and was unnerved to have to do it) between his aforementioned solo movie and ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar''. Though this all goes out the window in [[spoiler: ''Film/AvengersEndgame''. Strange is the person who lays the plan out to ultimately kill Thanos and he kills Thanos's forces in the FinalBattle as a GodzillaThreshold. It should be noted that the other two characters who hadn't killed people, ComicBook/SpiderMan and ComicBook/TheWasp, also lay waste to a ton of Thanos's forces.]]
* In ''Film/EscapePlan'', Dr. Kyrie is the doctor for a large top-secret incarceration facility known as The Tomb, tasked with keeping the inmates alive and at least stable if not completely healthy. It takes meeting Breslin for him to finally understand the gravity of how immoral his current situation is, given Breslin was sent there under false pretenses by his own employer, [[spoiler:and the doctor is instrumental in helping him and Rottmayer escape back to the mainland.]]

* Inverted in ''Series/Forever2014''; in the episode "New York Kids", a flashback to the 1950s sees immortal Doctor Henry Morgan attempt to save a man who was shot in a botched robbery, despite the fact that he was injured himself, but when he hears other people coming, Henry crawls away to hide and basically leaves his would-be patient to die in order to preserve his secret, this accident prompting him to officially abandon practising medicine until the present day.
* In an episode of ''Series/{{ER}}'', an Eastern European immigrant working as a janitor with a WorthlessForeignDegree in medicine jumped in to stabilize a patient, then fled in terror convinced she would be arrested/deported or at least lose any chance of getting herself recertified as a Doctor in the 'States.
* In an episode of ''Series/DiagnosisMurder'', Dr. Mark Sloan is at a retirement home disguised as a wheelchair-bound senile person in order to investigate corruption. At one point, another character needs emergency medical treatment, so Sloan has to irrevocably blow his cover in front of all the staff and residents to help.

* This is usually the case on ''{{Series/MASH}}'', where the protagonists are compelled to treat everyone, friend and foe alike. Dramatically inverted in an episode where an officer intends to launch a dangerous attack, in violation of orders, and Hawkeye intervenes by convincing him he had appendicitis and performing an unnecessary surgery. The plan works, but Hawkeye feels terrible about violating his oath afterward.
* One episode of ''{{Series/Scrubs}}'' had a girl who J.D. has a crush bring her boyfriend to the clinic. A test reveals he has gonorrhea, and he admits to J.D. that he'd gotten while cheating on her. J.D. is badly tempted to tell the girl but is bound by confidentiality. In the end [[SweetAndSourGrapes she finds out from someone else, and she and J.D. start dating]].

* It happens to [[VideoGame/TraumaCenter CR-S01]] twice. The first time it happened CR did not think to escape only Ian thought he would. The second time the trope is invoked word for word. CR is there, he sees a man fall he sees Ian on the surgery side and the exit on the other. In both cases, he chooses to help the patient.

** In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E23IBorg I Borg]]", the ''Enterprise'' gets a signal from a crashed ship, but when they arrive, they see [[OhCrap it's a Borg ship]], with one surviving drone in critical condition. Picard orders the away team to kill the drone [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident to make it seem it was killed in the crash]], but Dr. Crusher insists on treating the drone, saying "When I look at my patient, I don't see a collective consciousness, I don't see a hive. I see a living, breathing boy who has been hurt and who needs our help.", prompting Picard to reluctantly allow her to treat him.

*** This is literally written into the Doctor's code. A big part of his CharacterDevelopment, however, is that he learns to [[ZerothLawRebellion subvert it for the greater good]]. In "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS7E5CriticalCare Critical Care]]", when kidnapped and forced to work on a hospital ship where people aren't being treated equally, he pretty much [[PoisonAndCureGambit poisons a guy to force him to change the rules]], even if he's uncomfortable about it later. In "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS5E11LatentImage Latent Image]]", he lets a RedShirt die to save Kim, having lacked the time to save both while his normal diagnostic program could not decide which to prioritize for care.
*** The latter incident does cause him to experience a LogicBomb, due to the conflict between his programmed ability to make a pragmatic decision based on long-term benefits and likelihood of survival conflicting with the personality he's developed prompting him to choose who would live based upon which patient he was emotionally closer to, which nearly destroys his program in what they call a "cascade failure". The first time this happens, Janeway wipes his memory of the events and orders everyone to keep quiet. When he finds out again, Seven convinces Janeway to let it play out. Eventually, the Doctor is able to reconcile with himself and get back to his duties.