When assuming a public office, the official takes an oath.
An oath is the affirmation or denial of something , generally putting God as witness. The term, from the Latin iuramentum , refers to a promise or statement invoking something or someone.
For example: "The president swore an oath to the ministers in the Blue Room of the Presidential House" , "The sergeant has violated an oath and that deserves the most severe punishment" , "I have taken an oath and I am going to keep it: I will not leave of this world without discovering who murdered Erica .
Types of oath
The oath can be an internal and personal act, such as the person who swears to fulfill a certain purpose or make a certain effort. This oath is part of a kind of pact between the subject and God or the one to whom the declaration is made.
Other oaths, however, are constituted as solemn public acts . Officials who assume a position in the State take an oath before the people as a guarantee of compliance with their obligations and responsibilities.
The oath can be a solemn public act.
The notion in medicine
There are also other types of oaths that are specific to very specific professional sectors. Thus, for example, doctors must carry out what is called the Hippocratic Oath , whose clear objective is for them to promise that they will carry out their work with conscience and, above all, with absolute responsibility towards the human beings who will have as their patients.
In the 5th century BC. C., specifically in the figure of the Greek doctor Hippocrates , the origin of this aforementioned oath is found, which includes other fundamental principles such as justice, anti-corruption, the inviolable secrecy of all data and information obtained in the exercise of medicine , intelligence and the well-being of patients.
Veterinary, nursing, speech therapy or dental professionals also find it necessary to promise and have the aforementioned Hippocratic Oath as the basis of their work.
Oath at judicial level
At the judicial level, the statement under oath also represents a guarantee of the veracity of what is expressed. Whoever swears is giving his word and ensuring that what was said corresponds to the truth .
Violation of an oath can lead to various sanctions, depending on the context. It is possible to imagine a moral sanction for breaking one's word or, directly, suffering a civil or criminal punishment according to current legislation or regulations.
Other uses of the term
At the fantasy level, we would have to highlight that in the literary saga of the young wizard Harry Potter , created by the British writer JK Rowling , there is also a very special oath. We are referring to the unbreakable oath , which is a promise that one magician makes to another and that must be strictly fulfilled and at all times. Because? Because whoever breaks it must face a very serious consequence: death.
The way those characters have to "sign" the oath is by joining their hands while a witness points at them with a wand, from which a light will come out.
Juramento , finally, is an avenue that runs through the neighborhoods of Belgrano and Villa Urquiza in the city of Buenos Aires .