The Ethics of Medical Education

This paper discusses the ethical dilemma arising from medical education and the principles of ethics that must be followed by medical educators and students. The four principles of ethics are respecting individuals, beneficence, distributive justice, and non-maleficence. The paper concludes that considering medical ethics is crucial for providing the greater good of society.

Running head : THE ETHICS OF MEDICAL EDUCATION
The ethics of medical education
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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THE ETHICS OF MEDICAL EDUCATION
Introduction:
Medical students and doctors are trained for their clinical skills in order to treat the
patient for reducing the prevalence of chronic disease (Carrese et al. 2015). However,
accumulated study considered that there is a certain ethical dilemma that lowers the benefit of
treatment for the patient. This paper will illustrate various aspects of ethics in medical education
in the following paragraphs.
Discussion:
Participations of the medical students in patient care is an essential of medical education.
Although doctors are a critical part of the society, the ethical dilemma arises from the clinical
procedures resulted in the disadvantages for the patient as well as doctors. A study by Truog et
al. (2015), suggested that in the current system of medical education, medical students take part
in the patient-centric care which might subjected patients to psychological, physical, and other
risks sometimes without their informed consent. Therefore, an ethical dilemma arises in
providing patient-centric care. There are four principles of ethics and ideally, medical practice is
considered ethical if it respects all of these principles.
Western philosopher argued that human being has inherited personal dignity that needs
respect for own sake (Jones et al. 2017). A study by Champney et al. (2018), suggested that
current medical practices do not always accord adequate respect for the patient. Therefore, the
first principle of ethics is respecting individuals. When the patient is the object of the medical
education, respect should be given to personal opinion and meaningful consent should collect
from the patient in order to exercise ethical practices (Carrese et al. 2015). Patient must be fully
informed of the treatment procedures and participation of medical procedure. The fundamentals
principle of ethics in medical practices is beneficence (Jones et al. 2017). The fundamentals of

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THE ETHICS OF MEDICAL EDUCATION
beneficence consists of a range of obligations for promoting the welfare, which range from
negative for not doing harm to positive for benefiting patient (Harriss, MacSween and Atkinson
2017). Therefore, this principle of ethics demands development and maintenance of skills and
knowledge for benefit of the patient considering individual circumstances of all patients. The
third principle of ethics in medical practice is distributive justice. Since the burden of medical
education is not distributed properly which creates an ethical dilemma, benefit from new
experiments and treatment should be distributed equally amongst all group in society. The fourth
principle of ethics is Non-maleficence (Jones et al. 2017). According Champney et al. (2018), an
ethical dilemma arises when specialists are performing any operation on a human subject or for
research purpose use human subject. Non-maleficence stated that procedure does not harm the
patient involved or others in society for the purpose of medical research or treatment, which can
give rise to physical and mental health issue (Jones et al. 2017).
Conclusion:
Thus, it can be concluded that considering medical ethics are crucial for providing the
greater good of society. Therefore, the participation of all medical educators and students in the
medical research and treatment procedure must be according to the ethical principles. Otherwise,
the ethical dilemma arising the clinical field will give rise to public health issues and the global
burden of the disease.

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THE ETHICS OF MEDICAL EDUCATION
REFERNCES :
Carrese, J.A., Malek, J., Watson, K., Lehmann, L.S., Green, M.J., McCullough, L.B., Geller, G.,
Braddock III, C.H. and Doukas, D.J., 2015. The essential role of medical ethics education in
achieving professionalism: the Romanell Report. Academic Medicine, 90(6), pp.744-752.
Champney, T.H., Hildebrandt, S., Gareth Jones, D. and Winkelmann, A., 2018. BODIES R US:
Ethical Views on the Commercialization of the Dead in Medical Education and
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Harriss, D.J., MacSween, A. and Atkinson, G., 2017. Standards for ethics in sport and exercise
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Jones, D.G. and King, M.R., 2017. Maintaining the anonymity of cadavers in medical education:
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Truog, R.D., Brown, S.D., Browning, D., Hundert, E.M., Rider, E.A., Bell, S.K. and Meyer,
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