Abstract
This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. A public debate took place place in France in 2018 concerning ethical and social issues of biomedicine and life science and technologies. As faculty members of French medical schools and scholars in Social Sciences and Humanities, we contributed to introduce the central theme of health professionals education. What roles and what place should we assign to the social sciences and Humanities in preparing health professionals who will work in a transforming and largely unpredictable context? In this paper, we list 4 crucial issues for the present and the future of healthcare profession, concerning changes of medical roles; new biomedical concepts and innovations; long term consequences on health social contract; ethical issues in health care daily life settings. Then, we list 4 kinds of resources that are brought to students by Social Sciences and Humanities courses. They concern the connection to patients's experiences the social and cultural construction of these experiences; the social responsibility of medical doctors; and the independence of their professional judgments. This is a plea for the development of reflexivity and critical thought backed up by well identified, well integrated and sufficiently developed Social Sciences and Humanities courses in French medical schools.
Highlights
In today’s societies, the ethical, social and political challenges raised by the technical possibilities of the biomedicine, concerning artificial intelligence, the enhancement of human beings, procreation, etc, give rise to many passionate discussions
Patients are aware about their rights to solidarity and justice. They request health professionals to listen to their personal experiences, to be kept informed and participate in all decisions that concern them
In 2018, the French National Consultative Ethics Committee for health and life sciences called for a public debate on this topic
Summary
In today’s societies, the ethical, social and political challenges raised by the technical possibilities of the biomedicine, concerning artificial intelligence, the enhancement of human beings, procreation, etc, give rise to many passionate discussions. As teachers in medical schools and Social Sciences and Humanities scholars, we think that the training of health professionals is decisive to meet these challenges to society. The multidisciplinarity of the medical humanities, including history, anthropology, sociology, philosophy, ethics as well as the Arts and Literature is of crucial importance to the training of the future health professionals the population expects.
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