Medical Ethics - 5-day intensive training course at Imperial College London
Members of the medical
professions are repeatedly faced by ethical dilemmas in the course of
their normal working lives. For instance, is it right or wrong to
“facilitate” the death of someone experiencing irremediable pain in the
late stages of terminal illness? How should scarce resources of time,
money and skill be apportioned by medical practitioners and medical
administrators between the diversity of medical needs that present
themselves daily? What are the rights and wrongs of being “economical
with the truth” when telling patients about their medical condition?
How much should the doctor’s view of what should be done and not done
to benefit a patient over-ride the patient’s view?
All too
often, issues such as these have been confronted somewhat tangentially
and briefly during the initial training of medical, nursing and allied
professionals, and tackled subsequently with uneasy pragmatism by
practitioners. In particular, reasoned argument was not encouraged in
many traditional courses.
Aims of this Medical Ethics course
This course, which started in
1983, has been designed to provide medical, nursing and allied
professionals - whether as teachers of emerging professionals, or
practising professionals at different stages in their career - with an
extended and intensive opportunity to review and update their approach
to the analysis of key “medico-moral” issues, with the help of leading
authorities in the field of medical ethics.
It is also designed
to be helpful to members of ethics committees, whether or not they are
health professionals, and to others professionally involved with the
ethical issues of health care. Specifically, the course will:
- Clarify the meaning and significance of key ethical concepts
- Outline important types of ethical theory, and their relevance to medical ethics.
- Offer a conceptual framework useful for ethical analysis of medico-moral problems in a variety of professional contexts.
- Giveopportunities to participants - under supportive conditions - toarticulate their current medico- moral attitudes, and explore reasonedarguments that challenge their existing assumptions and ethical stances.
This intensive course consists of a series
of lecture/seminars followed by small and large group discussions
focused on the issues raised by the lecturers. One session will include
presentation of arguments opposed to the position actually held by
course members, in the context of a particular case.
Find out more about this Medical Ethics course and how it can help you here.
