Education in medical ethics

Since ethics is an integral part of practice of medicine, its study should parallel that of study of medicine. It should proceed in an orderly fashion from undergraduate into postgraduate study, starting with an understanding of principal moral values governing medical ethics. It should subsequently develop awareness of frequent existence of ethical issues and dilemmas, help develop the capacity for resolution of these issues through ethical reasoning, and acquire understanding of the function of institutional bodies concerned with ethics. Clinical real life situations and case studies should be extensively used as an educational tool. The exact design of the curriculum may vary to reflect the medical curriculum of a particular institution, but common objectives to all systems must be to achieve familiarity with moral values underlying the practice of medicine and with methodology of ethical reasoning. Some form of examination and evaluation of the course should be a standard feature of all teaching programs of medical ethics.