Bioethics: Education

This entry focuses on bioethics education in the formation of healthcare professionals. The emergent paradigm is borne out by a centripetal model in whose center are ethics explicit activities - mainly courses in ethics and law along with small group practices of ethics case deliberation. In a broader circle, one finds a diverse, mainly experiential and situation specific activities in ethics-related competences, mainly empathy, communication, and self-reflection. In the periphery of the hypothetical model, one finds all aspects of healthcare education, which must be infused with “professional” conduct and awareness of ethical issues. There is a broad consensus that bioethics education should be spread over horizontally (e.g., across all disciplines and educational activities) and vertically (e.g., throughout the process of education from beginning to graduation).