Bioethics education

Abstract

Bioethics education has rapidly developed over the last few decades. Starting in the 1970s, in the undergraduate medical curriculum in North America, it expanded into clinical education, residency training, and postgraduate programs as well as in education programs for other health professionals and scientists. Bioethics is now part of the medical curriculum in most countries. Special efforts are currently made to promote bioethics education in other regions of the world. This chapter discusses the growth of bioethics education and its global outreach today. It analyzes controversies about the best ways to teach bioethics, particularly regarding objectives of such teaching, the teaching methods, the content of programs, and the assessment of teaching efforts. Controversies actually emerge from two different philosophies of bioethics education, that is, a modest view that highlights the mission of bioethics education in terms of analytical skills and a broader view that emphasizes the need to create virtuous health professionals and scientists. The chapter then examines several persistent problems and challenges, as well as areas of consensus in bioethics education. It finally relates the debates on bioethics education to more fundamental queries regarding education in general.