Medical Ethics: Uncommon Morality and the Implications for Medical Ethics Education

2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (Special Issue) ◽  
pp. 17-18
Author(s):  
Rosamond Rhodes ◽  
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◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Medical Ethics ◽  
Ethics Education ◽  
Thought Experiment ◽  
Medical Knowledge ◽  
Biomedical Ethics ◽  
Common Morality ◽  
Medical Professionals ◽  
Public Confidence ◽  
Medical Ethics Education ◽  
Positive Argument

"Common morality has been the touchstone for addressing issues of medical ethics since the publication of Beauchamp and Childress’s Principles of Biomedical Ethics in 1979. In my presentation, I will challenge that reigning view by presenting two arguments. The negative argument shows why common morality cannot be the ethics of medicine. The positive argument explains why medical professions require their own ethics. I will then explain medicine’s distinctive ethics in terms of the trust that society allows to the profession. By distinguishing roles from professions, I will explicate sixteen specific duties that medical professionals undertake when they join the profession. My derivation of medicine’s distinctive ethics begins with a thought experiment demonstrating that trust is at the core of medical practice. Society allows doctors to develop special knowledge and skills and allows them to employ special powers, privileges, and immunities that could be particularly dangerous to members of society. Society, therefore, has to be assured that professional’s use of their remarkable powers and privileges will be constrained to their intended use. Professions’ publically declared codes and oaths go a long way to engender public confidence in medical professionals. Medical education must complete the job by helping our trainees understand their professional obligations and become clinicians who uphold their profession’s ethics. Medical educators therefor have to help our students comprehend and internalize their duty to “seek trust and be deserving of it,” and uphold their fiduciary responsibility to “use medical knowledge, skills, powers and privileges for the benefit of patients and society.” "

scholarly journals STUDENTS’ VIEWS ON THE ROLE OF ETHICS EDUCATION FOR THEIR FUTURE MEDICAL PRACTICE

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 87-91
Author(s):  
Nikoleta Leventi ◽  
Alexandrina Vodenitcharova ◽  
Kristina Popova ◽  
Kremena Ivanova ◽  
Svetlin Georgiev ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Medical Students ◽  
Medical Ethics ◽  
Ethics Education ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Everyday Practice ◽  
Medical Professionals ◽  
Medical Ethics Education

INTRODUCTION: Worldwide, in different ways, ethical dilemmas arise in medicine and life sciences. It is critical for medical professionals to respond with confidence when ethical challenges are addressed in their clinical practice. Medical ethics and bioethics education is recognized as an essential course of the medical curriculum. The course aims to provide students with knowledge and competencies on dealing with moral problems. OBJECTIVES: In this article, we aim to explore students’ views about the importance and role of medical ethics education for their future practice. Their suggestions on specific medical ethics and bioethics topics were also considered, as well as previous knowledge on ethics before they enrolled in university. METHODS: A paper questionnaire was developed and distributed among first-year foreign medical students from the Faculty of Medicine in the Medical University-Sofia in Bulgaria. All students participated in the study anonymously and voluntarily. The study was conducted during January and February 2020. RESULTS: Completed questionnaires were received from 366 medical students. Data collected demonstrates that only 19% of the students were taught ethics before enrolling in university and covered topics on philosophy and ethics, civil and human rights. The majority (92%) of the responders believe that the study of medical ethics and bioethics helps medical professionals to improve their skills in identifying ethical problems in their everyday practice. Interesting were the suggestions for topics in medical ethics and bioethics that needed further study during lectures and seminars and included principles of medical ethics and bioethics, ethical behavior in medicine and health care, ethical dimensions of new technologies in health care, ethical dimensions of clinical decisions and patients’ quality of life, ethics and health management. CONCLUSIONS: Medical ethics education is significant for future physicians, helping them to improve their skills in identifying ethical issues, and base their decisions on fundamental ethical principals in their everyday practice. Attention should be given to topics related to principles of medical ethics, models of patient-physician relationships, new technologies in health care, ethics and health policy. 

The Trusted Doctor

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosamond Rhodes
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Practice ◽  
Medical Ethics ◽  
Medical Practice ◽  
Biomedical Ethics ◽  
Common Morality ◽  
Medical Professionals ◽  
Medical Professionalism ◽  
Clear Understanding ◽  
Professional Obligations ◽  
The World

Common morality has been the touchstone for addressing issues of medical ethics since the publication of Beauchamp and Childress’s Principles of Biomedical Ethics in 1979. This book challenges that reigning view by presenting an original account of the ethics of medicine. It begins by demonstrating why the standard common morality accounts of medical ethics are unsuitable for the profession and inadequate for responding to the uncommon issues that arise in medical practice. It then explains medicine’s distinctive ethics in terms of the trust that society allows to the profession. Starting with the obligation to “seek trust and be trustworthy,” the book goes on to explicate sixteen specific duties that doctors take on when they join the profession. By enumerating the duties of medical professionals and explaining their importance with numerous clinical examples, this book presents a cohesive and coherent description of the duties of medical professionals that is largely consistent with codes of medical ethics posted on websites of medical societies around the world. It also explains why it is critical for physicians to develop the attitudes or doctorly virtues that comprise the character of trustworthy doctors and buttress physicians’ efforts to fulfill their professional obligations. Together, the presentation of physicians’ duties and the elements that comprise a doctorly character add up to a description of what medical professionalism entails. This analysis provides a clear understanding of medical professionalism and guides doctors in navigating the ethically challenging situations that arise in clinical practice.

scholarly journals Paediatric Residents and Fellows Ethics (PERFEct) survey: perceptions of European trainees regarding ethical dilemmas

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. C. den Boer ◽  
A. Zanin ◽  
J. M. Latour ◽  
J. Brierley
Keyword(s):  
Medical Education ◽  
Medical Ethics ◽  
Ethics Education ◽  
Ethical Dilemmas ◽  
Moral Dilemmas ◽  
Ethics Training ◽  
Healthcare Team ◽  
Medical Ethics Education ◽  
European Paediatric ◽  
Future Practice

AbstractWith an increasingly complex healthcare environment, ethics is becoming a more critical part of medical education. We aimed to explore European paediatric trainees’ experiences of facing ethical dilemmas and their medical ethics education whilst assessing their perceptions of ethical dilemmas in current and future practice. The Young Sections of the European Academy of Paediatrics and European Society of Paediatric and Neonatal Intensive Care developed an explorative online survey covering demographics, ethical dilemmas faced and ethics training. The survey was made available in nine languages from November 2019 to January 2020 via newsletters and social media. Participants (n = 253) from 22 countries, predominantly female (82%) and residents (70%), with a median age of 29-years, completed the survey. The majority (58%) faced ethical dilemmas monthly or more frequently. Most ethics training was received by ethics lectures in medical school (81%) and on the job (60%). A disagreement between the healthcare team and patient/family was the most frequently faced moral dilemma (45%); the second was withholding/withdrawing life-prolonging measures (33%). The latter was considered the most challenging dilemma to resolve (50%). Respondents reported that ethical issues are not sufficiently addressed during their training and wished for more case-based teaching. Many have been personally affected by moral dilemmas, especially regarding withholding/withdrawing life-prolonging measures, and often felt inadequately supported.Conclusion: Paediatric trainees face many moral issues in daily practice and consider that training about managing current and future ethical dilemmas should be improved, such as by the provision of a core European paediatric ethics curriculum. What is Known:• Paediatric services are becoming more complex with an increase in ethical dilemmas asking for rigorous training in ethics.• Ethics training is often lacking or covered poorly in both pre- and postgraduate medical education curricula.• Existing ethics training for European paediatric trainees is haphazard and lacks standardisation. What is New:• The PaEdiatric Residents and Fellows Ethics (PERFEct) survey provides insight into the European paediatric trainees’ views regarding ethical dilemmas in their current and future practice.• European paediatric trainees report a lack of ethics training during paediatric residency and fellowship.• This study provides content suggestions for standardised medical ethics training for paediatric trainees in Europe.

Commentary: Beyond Common or Uncommon Morality

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 426-428
Author(s):  
LESLIE FRANCIS
Keyword(s):  
Medical Ethics ◽  
Common Morality ◽  
Medical Professionals ◽  
Ethical Standards ◽  
Overlapping Consensus ◽  
Healthcare Professions

In “Medical Ethics: Common or Uncommon Morality,”1 Rosamond Rhodes defends a specialist view of medical ethics, specifically the ethics of physicians. Rhodes’s account is specifically about the ethics of medical professionals, rooted in what these professionals do. It would seem to follow that other healthcare professions might be subject to ethical standards that differ from those applicable to physicians, rooted in what these other professions do, but I leave this point aside for purposes of this commentary. Rhodes’s view includes both a negative and a positive thesis. The negative thesis is that precepts in medical ethics—understood as the ethics of physicians—cannot be derived from principles of common morality. The positive thesis is two-fold: that precepts in medical ethics must be derived from an account of the special nature of what physicians do, and that this account is to be understood through an overlapping consensus of rational and reasonable medical professionals. While I agree emphatically with, and have learned a great deal from, Rhodes’s defense of the negative thesis, I disagree with both claims in Rhodes’s positive thesis, for reasons I will now explain after a brief observation about the negative thesis.

scholarly journals Medical ethics education

1989 ◽  
Vol 64 (12) ◽  
pp. 705-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
S H Miles ◽  
L W Lane ◽  
J Bickel ◽  
R M Walker ◽  
C K Cassel
Keyword(s):  
Medical Ethics ◽  
Ethics Education ◽  
Medical Ethics Education

Common Morality Principles in Biomedical Ethics: Responses to Critics

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
James F. Childress ◽  
Tom L. Beauchamp
Keyword(s):  
Medical Ethics ◽  
Moral Theory ◽  
Biomedical Ethics ◽  
Common Morality ◽  
Moral Change

Abstract After briefly sketching common-morality principlism, as presented in Principles of Biomedical Ethics, this paper responds to two recent sets of challenges to this framework. The first challenge claims that medical ethics is autonomous and unique and thus not a form of, or justified or guided by, a common morality or by any external morality or moral theory. The second challenge denies that there is a common morality and insists that futile efforts to develop common-morality approaches to bioethics limit diversity and prevent needed moral change. This paper argues that these two critiques fundamentally fail because they significantly misunderstand their target and because their proposed alternatives have major deficiencies and encounter insurmountable problems.

scholarly journals Systematic Development and Refinement of a Contextually Relevant Strategy for Undergraduate Medical Ethics Education: a qualitative study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Shahid Shamim ◽  
Adrienne Torda ◽  
Lubna Baig ◽  
Nadeem Zubairi ◽  
Chinthaka Balasooriya
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Medical Ethics ◽  
Qualitative Methodology ◽  
Ethics Education ◽  
Learning Strategy ◽  
Educational Strategy ◽  
Medical Ethics Education ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Preliminary Version ◽  
Study Participants

Abstract Background Delivery of medical ethics education is complex due to various reasons, compounded by the context-dependent nature of the content. The scarcity of relevant resources in the contexts of some developing countries adds a further layer of difficulty to ethics education in these contexts. We used a consultative approach with students, teachers and external experts to develop a contextually relevant and practical approach to medical ethics education. The aim of this study was to develop and refine a contextually relevant approach to ethics education in the region of Saudi Arabia. Methods The study utilized explorative qualitative methodology to seek views of students and faculty of Rabigh Faculty of Medicine, Kaing Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and international experts in the field of ethics and education to review and enhance a preliminary version of workbook-based ethics learning strategy. Three focus groups with 12 students and in-depth interviews with four faculty members enabled the study participants to objectively critique the WBEL and provide feedback to enhance its quality. In addition, eleven external experts critically analyzed the workbook. Thematic content analysis of the data was done to draw inferences which were used to refine the educational strategy. Results The analysis generated twenty-one sub-themes within four main themes: design features, content, teaching methods and assessment. These findings helped to modify the educational strategy for improve its effectiveness in the given context. Conclusion The study drew on the views of students, faculty and external experts to systematically develop a novel approach to ethics education for countries like Saudi Arabia. It also demonstrated the use of consultative approach for informing a culturally relevant educational strategy in Middle East context.

Why a New Approach to Medical Ethics Is Needed

2020 ◽  
pp. 9-43
Author(s):  
Rosamond Rhodes
Keyword(s):  
Medical Ethics ◽  
Medical Practice ◽  
Systematic Approach ◽  
Biomedical Ethics ◽  
Common Morality ◽  
Medical Professionalism ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Good Medical Practice ◽  
Everyday Ethics ◽  
The Common

The Trusted Doctor: Medical Ethics and Professionalism rejects the well-entrenched views of medical ethics as everyday ethics or common morality applied to medicine. This chapter lays the foundation for the original account of medical ethics that follows in the book’s succeeding chapters. By presenting vivid examples and general arguments the author demonstrates ways in which the ethics of medicine is distinct and different from common morality. The chapter discusses the most popular common morality views, namely, the four principles approach expounded by Tom Beauchamp and James Childress in Principles of Biomedical Ethics and the ten rules approach presented by Bernard Gert, Charles Culver, and K. Danner Clouser in Bioethics: A Systematic Approach by presenting arguments that challenge their applicability to medical practice. A chart identifies some stark differences between the common morality approach and good medical practice and shows how everyday ethics is incompatible with medical professionalism.

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