Teaching is one of the priorities for poor countries
Research ethics is a priority, and so is biotechnology, but poor
countries have several priorities going on at the same time. Bioethics
teaching to medicine students is one of them, since it is a good way to
arouse physicians awareness of research and many other ethical troubles.
Introducing bioethics on the curriculum gives us a welcome opportunity to
work with the clinical teachers, since we try to avoid hidden curriculum
troubles.
Poor countries priorities in countries with a transitional epidemiologic
pattern are, as Volnei Garrafa (1) puts it, both "persistent" (resource
allocation, justice, etc), and "emergent" (genomics, biotechnology, etc).
One way to start tackling those problems is by trying to have new medical
graduates with a solid ethics training. So I hope that many of the Fogarty
trainees will return to our countries and improve bioethics teaching,
which is not so glamorous but could be rewarding on the long run.
(1) Garrafa V. Hard Bioethics. Presented in the Jornadas de la Asociación
Argentina de Bioetica, Mar del Plata, 1999.
Rapid Response:
Teaching is one of the priorities for poor countries
Research ethics is a priority, and so is biotechnology, but poor
countries have several priorities going on at the same time. Bioethics
teaching to medicine students is one of them, since it is a good way to
arouse physicians awareness of research and many other ethical troubles.
Introducing bioethics on the curriculum gives us a welcome opportunity to
work with the clinical teachers, since we try to avoid hidden curriculum
troubles.
Poor countries priorities in countries with a transitional epidemiologic
pattern are, as Volnei Garrafa (1) puts it, both "persistent" (resource
allocation, justice, etc), and "emergent" (genomics, biotechnology, etc).
One way to start tackling those problems is by trying to have new medical
graduates with a solid ethics training. So I hope that many of the Fogarty
trainees will return to our countries and improve bioethics teaching,
which is not so glamorous but could be rewarding on the long run.
(1) Garrafa V. Hard Bioethics. Presented in the Jornadas de la Asociación
Argentina de Bioetica, Mar del Plata, 1999.
Competing interests: No competing interests