Significance of the Case-study Method in Practical Bioethics Education / 医学教育

ABSTRACT

Clinical cases requiring bioethical thinking and decision-making have become more complex owing to advances in medical technology and changes in family relationships. In addition, members of medical staff are asked to acquire the ability to think in terms of bioethics. For training in such ability, the use of case studies is important and essential. For a medical ethics class we created 30 cases involving communication between patients and physicians, changes in family relationships, and advanced medical technology, such as genetic diagnosis and gene therapy. We asked all second-year medical students of the Osaka University Medical School to think about these 30 cases and answer questionnaires about bioethics. We believe the case-study method is effective for training students in the ability to think in terms of bioethics.