Ethics education in medical schools: the role of jurists

Ethical thinking has always existed in the area of medicine. The oldest law case has known human experiment difficulties, but this comes from the doctor. The power of the practitioner relies on the lack of medical knowledge of the patient and often in practice, on the lack of information for the patient. The doctor has ethical difficulties when he considers the patient and the solution, in fact is dependent on his conscience. With the various medical discoveries, the doctor can create life (assisted procreation), manipulate life (gene therapy) and suppress life (abortion, suppression of frozen embroyos). These discoveries have increased the necessity for ethical reflection. Ethics committees have been created at local level (as part of special establishments or departments) rather than at national and international levels. The scope of the stakes (the development of the human race) give to this ethical reflection a multidisciplinary approach. There is a general tendency for the influence of law in these fields. Therefore, the jurist has a more and more important place on these ethics committees. Actually, the interaction from ethics to law is frequent. Also during legal proceedings, a jurist has and will have more and more need of a medical assessor. So, cooperation is necessary between doctors and jurists. The teaching of ethics in medical schools by the jurist can be important because it will recall the humanist mission of the doctor. The jurist must be able to increase the medical professions' awareness of essential notions such as respect for the fundamental rights of the human being.