Teaching Resources in Bioethics Update

A decade ago, this journal published an annotated bibliography on the teaching of medical ethics (Coutts 1991). While noting that courses in medical ethics had become an accepted part of the medical school curriculum by the early 1980s, the level of instruction was characterized as ". . . not fully mature, and its future remains somewhat unclear" (p. 171).

A recent search of BIOETHICSLINE indicates a significant shift toward the evaluation of medical ethics curricula and teaching methods in the 1990s. One outcome of this research is the recognition that medical ethics courses must be integrated into the medical school curriculum and reconfigured from the traditional faculty-oriented model to a student-experiential one that is both interdisciplinary and community-oriented (De Angelis 1999).

As community concerns and values become an integral part of medical ethics education, curricula addressing bioethical issues for specific communities are being created to support the development of "frameworks of mutualism" (Rothenberg and Rutkin 1998). For both individuals and communities to give truly informed consent to research, a general level of proficiency in bioethics and, increasingly, genetics must be attained.

In addition to educating communities to evaluate the risks and benefits of research, courses are being developed to foster interest in bioethics and in genetics from elementary school through graduate studies in the hope that members of vulnerable populations will become proficient in both bioethics and genetics and thus be able to prevent abuses from occurring in their communities. For example, the Genetic Education for Native Americans (GENA) curriculum is being developed in conjunction with a database of scientists willing to mentor students interested in careers in genetics (Native American Cancer Research Initiatives, Inc.) Another form of community education is a series of community leader retreats held as part of the Vermont Human Genetics Initiative's Community Genetics and Ethics Project (University of Vermont). Researchers themselves are developing enhanced curricula in conjunction with the National Institutes of Health directives (National Institutes of Health). These projects pay tribute to the principles of biomedical ethics set forth in The Belmont Report, which has been digitized so that it may be read and referenced in the development of contemporary curricula (National Institures of Health).

References

Coutts, Mary Carrington. Teaching Ethics in the Health Care Setting. Part I: Survey of the Literature. Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 1: 171-85, June 1991.

De Angelis, Catherine D., ed. The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Curriculum for the Twenty-First Century. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999. 248 p.

Rothenberg, Karen H., and Rutkin, Amy B. Toward a Framework of Mutualism: The Jewish Community in Genetics Research. Community Genetics 1 (3): 148-53, 1998.

Kennedy Institute Education Resources

Education is a significant aspect of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics' mission. In addition to the formal academic programs (a doctoral program in philosophy and joint programs with Georgetown University Medical Center, Georgetown University Law School, and Johns Hopkins University), the National Reference Center for Bioethics Literature has developed resources such as Scope Notes and the Syllabus Exchange Program to support bioethics education. A special project focusing on development of a high school bioethics curriculum also is underway.

National Reference Center for Bio-ethics Literature. Syllabus Exchange Project. Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University. Available at: http://www.georgetown.edu/research/nrcbl/syllabus/sylbcat.htm.

The Syllabus Exchange Project began in 1986 to facilitate the development of teaching materials in bioethics. This catalog contains entries for more than 500 syllabi collected to date. The syllabi are acquired through NRCBL's exchange program, Internet searching, and direct solicitation. Permission to download and archive online syllabi is obtained prior to adding them to the collection. A catalog of the syllabus collection is maintained online arranged by level of instruction, and a print version is published annually. Copies of syllabi are archived at NRCBL for use in the library, and photocopies are available when permission has been granted. The Syllabus Exchange collection as a whole is not available in electronic...