["Medical Ethics Patient Forum". Results of a model project]

The patients' forum Medical Ethics is an innovative model project, which aims at intensifying the dialogue between health care professionals and patients as well as their relatives.

Practical experiences and data from a complementing evaluative study are reported. By means of a sophisticated instrument of moral psychology, the Moralisches-Urteil-Test (M-U-T), differences are revealed between the participating groups--doctors, health care professionals, patients, medical students etc.--referring to more cognitive or emotional orientations in moral judgment, respectively. These differences contradict common assumptions.

On the ground of the data presented as well as by subjective estimations of participants it is shown that the ethics discussion with patients is not only successful, but that it is also valuable for teaching by fostering new insights and experiences.