Discussions on ethical issues of medicine and health care as an integral part of teaching ethics to medicine students

Summary

The article reports on sociological discussions on selected ethical issues of modern medicine and health care, which became a part of medical ethics and humanities taught to the first school year students of general medicine. The main aim was to make students active in the learning process on ethical issues and to let them experience the negotiation of “common good” in the plurality of views. Students first identified their own attitudes and views, which they confronted in small teams and the whole group. Presentation of literature findings has followed the discussion. In this article we present individual responses to 8 statements related to medicine and health care and we comment their broader context. In some responses students have presented inconsistent attitudes. It was the aim of the succeeding teaching to elucidate the dilemma and reduce the ambivalence in attitudes and views. In the very end we make some comments on the specific qualities of our students which we deduce from their written essays and debates.

Keywords:
ethics – humanities, health care – medical students – medical sociology