Why isn't Bioethics a required course?

[NavyEnlisted]

A few weeks ago Goro sent me a link to a lot of great material on bioethics (found here https://depts.washington.edu/bioethx/topics/). After reading all the cases and explanations provided for each scenario, I have begun to wonder why this course is not a requirement for medical school. This information has led me to sign up for a Bioethics course just to learn more on the subject. Couldn't it be argued that the ethics in medicine are just as important as the science based information? I do not see why the MCAT does not have a Bioethics section and I think it probably should.

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[deleted480308]

there are enough prereqs already

 

[NavyEnlisted]

there are enough prereqs already

While I agree, I think ethics is more important than psychology or sociology, both of which found there way to the MCAT.

 

[Darth Doc]

Because we get an ethics course once we're in med school.

 

[wholeheartedly]

Also because knowing ethics and behaving ethically are two very different things.

 

[LeftShark]

A few weeks ago Goro sent me a link to a lot of great material on bioethics (found here https://depts.washington.edu/bioethx/topics/). After reading all the cases and explanations provided for each scenario, I have begun to wonder why this course is not a requirement for medical school. This information has led me to sign up for a Bioethics course just to learn more on the subject. Couldn't it be argued that the ethics in medicine are just as important as the science based information? I do not see why the MCAT does not have a Bioethics section and I think it probably should.

I would assume that most medical schools teach that. I mean, really, not everything can be a prereq. At some point, if something is important for a doctor to know, it should be taught in formal medical training.

 

[Law2Doc]

1. The prereqs are not so much important in terms of the material you learn but because they provide a yardstick from which to compare applicants. Ethics is not hard science -- there can be multiple debatably correct answers so it can never provide as useful a metric.
2. having covered the basic sciences successfully is some evidence that someone will not flounder in biochem and physiology and pharmacology etc in med school. Success in essay tests in an ethics course are not as translatable.
3. Most med schools teach ethics, not sure why you need it going in. The point if a prereq really isn't to duplicate med school.
4. Once you actually in med school you'll have more context. debating making a loved one DNR has more meaning when you are about to do a rotation wher you participate in family meetings.
5. What the MCAT covers and what you need to know aren't often on the same page. They could just as easily test you on Shakespeare. The point for the MCAT isn't that you've gotten a Certain useful schooling, it's to differentiate you from others who have taken the same set of prereqs, with variable amounts of grade inflation/deflation. don't confuse this test and the prereqs with medical school -- your useful medical knowledge really doesn't start until you are well into med school.

 

[QofQuimica]

4. Once you actually in med school you'll have more context. debating making a loved one DNR has more meaning when you are about to do a rotation wher you participate in family meetings.
5. What the MCAT covers and what you need to know aren't often on the same page. They could just as easily test you on Shakespeare. The point for the MCAT isn't that you've gotten a Certain useful schooling, it's to differentiate you from others who have taken the same set of prereqs, with variable amounts of grade inflation/deflation. don't confuse this test and the prereqs with medical school -- your useful medical knowledge really doesn't start until you are well into med school.

I'd say these are the most important reasons, especially #4.

Not that those of you who are premeds shouldn't take an ethics course if you're interested, but context is so important when it comes to medical ethics. If you'll excuse my mixing of metaphors, a lot of things that seem "obvious" to an armchair quarterback aren't quite so obvious to those in the trenches. I would advise anyone who does take a medical ethics class to take one from a practicing physician with ethics training if at all possible. One of the things that made my med school ethics class so effective was that our facilitator was a retired clinician who then went back to get an MS in ethics. His sessions were beyond awesome, since they were informed by his multiple decades of practical experience and backed up by ethics theory.