Medical Ethics Education: Its Objectives and Curriculum

Abstract

Medical ethics has been integrated into the curriculum for medical education in Korea for over 30 years now. There have been many attempts to establish standards for the educational objectives and curriculum, including establishing learning outcomes and publishing medical ethics textbooks in Korean. However, this task is not easy for several reasons: the interdisciplinary nature of the subject, educators’ lack of experience, and the lack of a consensus on the criteria that would be effective educational goals. In this article, the author explores (1) the need for reflection on the education itself, (2) two perspectives of medical ethics education, (3) critical perspectives on the effectiveness of the current medical ethics education, and (4) the variety of modalities of medical ethics education. Further, the author proposes a way to teach medical ethics in Korea. The contents and means are closely related to the question of philosophy of medical education: “Should professional ethics education be ‘realistic’ or ‘idealistic’?” Ethics requires educators to be open to new learning experiences and to ethical development. Medical Ethics education should be relevant to everyday clinical experiences and, at the same time provide students and educators to critically review their ethical perspective through reflections.