Medical Ethics

Saturday’s Medical Ethics workshop offered an opportunity for prospective medical students to broaden their knowledge, look beyond the science of medicine, and examine the difficult moral questions involved in real life medical practice.

In the morning, students were introduced to various schools of ethics – looking at different answers to questions about how we ought to live our lives, and what it is right or wrong to do in different situations. We explored approaches ranging from Aristotle to Kant to Mill to give students an overview of how to think about complex ethical dilemmas. The group spent time generating and discussing ideas about how these ideas might impact the practice of medicine.

In the latter part of the workshop, armed with these tools, students were presented with complex medical and ethical dilemmas. Some groups looked at the case of a man with dementia who had, in the early stages of his illness expressed his wish to die when his condition degenerated. Students tackled the very challenging issues surrounding the patient’s autonomy and wishes, the effects on his family and on the doctors involved. Other groups examined a case in which parents wished, on religious grounds, to refuse a life saving organ transplant for their underage son, and futuristic technologies which would allows parents to choose certain characteristics for their children – both to eradicate disease and to make their children prettier or more intelligent. In each of these cases, the Tutors rounded off the discussion by outlining the current UK law in each of these areas and exploring the relationship of legal rules to ethical choices.

The students left the day with a good grounding in ethical theories and also having explored in depth some complicated and crucial issues which are part of the everyday lives of the professions they hope to join.

You can find details of our upcoming Medical Ethics courses here.

Lewis Turner, Philosophy Tutor