Moral Reasoning and Ethical Judgment

The competent graduate recognizes the ethical issues of medical practice and health policy; identifies alternatives in difficult ethical choices; analyzes systematically the conflicting considerations supporting different alternatives; and formulates, defends, and effectively carries out a course of action that takes account of this ethical complexity. The graduate combines a willingness to recognize the nature of the value systems of patients and others with commitment to his/her own system and the ethical choices necessary to maintain his/her own ethical integrity.

View Video Clip
Margaret Gaffney, M.D.
Competency Director, Moral Reasoning and Ethical Judgment

Sample Learning Experiences:

Lectures about medical ethics may impart knowledge but generally fail to engage the learner in the moral imagination necessary to learn ethics. Small group case based discussion is generally more successful in accomplishing this. In Indianapolis the ICM I class is organized almost entirely as a small group discussion format. Literature related to ethical problem solving and cases provide background for practical examples for problem solving.

Sample Case: Healthy Chemicals, Inc. has just received FDA approval for Calmitrol, a new anti-hypertensitve agent. Calmitrol is the first of a new class of magnesium channel blockers to obtain FDA approval, and it promises to be an important breakthrough in the treatment of hypertension. Healthy Chemicals wants to disseminate the news about this effective drug as rapidly as possible. They propose to sponsor two weekend conferences on Calmitrol (one at the Hotel Radisson in Cancun and one at the Coronado Hotel in San Diego) for physicians who are known to be hypertension specialists. These specialists will be offered a three day all-expense-paid trip (including airfare and a $250 incidental expense voucher) to one of the two conferences. The meetings will be purely informational in nature; attendees will not be required to commit themselves to prescribing Calmitrol. Those who are interested in participating in a post-marketing (Phase 4) monitoring protocol will receive additional information relevant to that program.

Bibliography

For more details on this competency, please click here.