Education, Practice and Bioethics: Growing Barriers to Ethical Practice

While Bioethics is now taught at all medical colleges in the United States as well as in other nations, and while discussions about Bioethics have become frequent in most medical journals there are increasing barriers to teaching and incorporating what has been taught into daily practice. I shall discuss some of these barriers and suggest that integrating the teaching of Bioethics throughout the curriculum after presenting some of the basic theory and methodology is the most effective way of teaching this vital subject. Furthermore, courses in health care ethics are often taught as something distinct and distinguishable from one's medical practice. I shall emphasize what I consider to be the failure of Bioethics to participate effectively in creating a context whereby what has been taught can be put into praxis. In this brief article I will discuss such barriers and suggest several approaches and remedies.