Get Lost?
SUKHIT PHAOSAVASDI, M.D.*, YUEN TANNIRANDORN,M.D.*, SURASAK TANEEPANICHSKUL, M.D.*, SORAT HONGLADAROM**
Affiliation : * Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkom University, Bangkok I 0330, **Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkom University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand.
Doctors have started talking for a long
time about teaching ethics to medical students
whether ethics should be included in medical
courses. There are several meetings and many
detailed reports on this issue, which are more than
enough for a decision to be made on further action.
However up till the year 2000 the teaching of ethics
is still incomplete or is not made into an appro-
priate curriculum.
Ethics in medical practice is probably
regarded as mystery, mythology or somewhat too
good to transform to be a curriculum, I really do not
know.
Have we really tried? Medical educa-
tionist in 13 medical faculties in Thailand probably
have tried very sincerely to teach ethics to medical students. Because ethics is very important in the medical profession. So why is ethics, which is a
branch of medicine, not really in the curriculum?
Have we been expecting too much? It is possible to
attach ethics to other curriculum and to continue
teaching medical students with real medical topics.
What is an easy way to solve this problem?
Ethics nurture people for good thoughts,
good words and good behaviors. We have to find
out how ethics philosophy and theory work to
achieve its goal, how instructors and students will
realize the core of ethics and how ethics content,
principle and teaching process will encourage their
spirits to implement ethics for medical profession.
If ethics can be applied to teach medical
students properly in Thailand, it will be a great
benefit for patients and society.
Keywords : Ethics, Medical curriculum
