Introduction to Bioethics

In recent decades medical education curricula have undergone many modifications for a variety of reasons. In spite of these changes, ethics education has not received adequate attention in medical schools throughout the world. There is an emerging need for introduction of teaching medical ethics as a consequence of several social and scientific reasons. Bioethics has brought about significant changes in standards for the treatment of the sick and for the conduct of research. The bioethical issues being addressed are numerous to count, but the flavor of bioethics in the early twenty-first century can be conveyed by an exploration of the bioethical implications of genetic research, health care access reform, and stem cell research. The International Center for Health, Law and Ethics at the University of Haifa has initiated an international project, the aim of which is to form a new, modern curriculum of medical ethics to be taught in medical schools all over the world. The need for a modernized curriculum derives not only from the fact that many of the existent curricula are antiquated and completely out of tune with the intricacies of recent scientific developments, but also from the safeguards which we require in the form of educational innovations which will inseminate ethical values in our students, in spite of this materialistic age in which we live.