Medical ethics and law as a core subject in medical education

BMJ 1998;316:1623-1624 ( 30 May )

Editorials

Medical ethics and law as a core subject in medical education

A core curriculum offers flexibility in how it is taught $---$ but not that it is taught

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

In Tomorrow's Doctors Britain's General Medical Council initiated a radical and needed reform of medical education. One ofthe less noticed, yet revolutionary, aspects of this reform isthat medical ethics and law have become a core component of thecurriculum. Thus all medical students, states the council, mustacquire knowledge and understanding of ethical and legal issuesrelevant to the practice of medicine and be able "to understandand analyse ethical problems so as to enable patients, their families,society, and the doctor to have proper regard to such problemsin reaching decisions."¹

Seeking to pool their expertise, most of the academics currently teaching medical ethics and law in UK medical schools $---$ mostlyclinicians, philosophers, lawyers, and theologians $---$ hammered outa consensus statement about what should constitute the core academiccontent necessary to produce "doctors who will engage in goodethically and legally informed practice." They also agreed . . . [Full text of this article]

CiteULike

Complore

Connotea

Del.icio.us Add to Digg

Digg

StumbleUpon Add to Technorati

Technorati What's this?

Relevant Articles

Students whose behaviour causes concern: Ethical perspective: Deborah Bowman
BMJ 2008 337: a2882. [Extract] [Full Text]

Betraying clinicians?
BMJ 1998 316: 0. [Full Text]

This article has been cited by other articles:

Bowman, D. (2008). Students whose behaviour causes concern: Ethical perspective. BMJ 337: a2882-a2882 [Full text]
McDougall, R., Sokol, D. K (2008). The ethical junior: a typology of ethical problems faced by house officers. JRSM 101: 67-70 [Abstract] [Full text]
Sokol, D. K (2007). William Osler and the jubjub of ethics; or how to teach medical ethics in the 21st century. JRSM 100: 544-546 [Full text]
Doyal, L. (2001). Closing the gap between professional teaching and practice. BMJ 322: 685-686 [Full text]
Macnair, T. (1999). Medical ethics. BMJ 319: 2-2 [Full text]

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Ethics is given excess emphasis over law in the proposed curriculum: Wai-Ching Leung
bmj.com, 1 Jun 1998 [Full text]
EMedLaw training should include knowing when to call for help: Raj Mohindra
bmj.com, 8 Jun 1998 [Full text]
An meaningful omission: Gonzalo Herranz
bmj.com, 15 Jun 1998 [Full text]
Untitled: Aadil A Khan
bmj.com, 7 Aug 1998 [Full text]