Balancing the Needs of the Many Against the Needs of the Few: Aliens, Holograms and Discussions of Medical Ethics

Abstract

Healthcare educators have a responsibility to provide varied learning opportunities that allow students to be professionally socialised. However, medical ethics is a challenging concept to teach, as it is complex, cognitively demanding and often subjective. Educational experiences that explore ethical situations in a fictional context allow more open-minded discussion and deeper learning. This chapter describes two experiential learning activities based on episodes from Star Trek: Voyager. It proposes that Star Trek is an effective literary vehicle to explore all four key principles of medical ethics (respect for autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence and justice). Furthermore, the learning experiences described in this chapter incorporate flexible learning opportunities and provide educators with a number of discussion prompts to foster students’ personal, professional and ethical development.