The teaching of bioethics during the degree Course in Medicine

The experience of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart

Abstract

Following the application in the sixth year too of the degree course of the new Table XVIII regarding the didactic reorganization which has been in force since the accademic year 1988-1989, the authors considered appropriate to provide some informations regarding the experience of teaching bioethics in the faculty of Medicine "A. Gemelli" at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome. In the first part of the article the authors fully describe the part this teaching plays in the medicine student’s degree course, and they explain why certain methodological choices have been made, and how some modifications could improve the coordination between the teaching of bioethics during the various years of the course and the closely connected subjects. Over the next few years the authors aim to organise a series of seminars on clinical bioethics within the clinical areas, in close collaboration with the lecturers, particularly those of clinical medicine, gynecology and obstetrics, surgical and medical emergencies and pediatrics.

In the second part of the article the authors reflected on the placing of bioethics in the plan to revise the system of tables, already approved of last year by the National University Council, but which was never published in the Official Gazette.