Perspectives of Bioethics Integration Into Medical Education in Lithuania
Bioethics is currently considered as an important academic field in the curriculum of medical education. Bioethics integration into medical education remains a challenging question in the context of medical humanities. The role of bioethics education within the medical education curriculum has been widely discussed, and no consensus has been achieved so far.
The aim of this paper was to overview the major challenges in bioethics education as well as to analyze its development perspectives in Lithuania.
The paper discusses the actual implementation of a variety of curricular goals, adequate teaching methods and evaluation criteria in bioethics. It also reveals the development of the bioethics syllabus and its relation to the changing competence and skill requirements in medical education. The paper reflects the content of bioethics teaching programs at different study levels by illustrating international experience. A broader understanding of bioethics education in relation to other disciplines of medical humanities (such as philosophy of medicine, ethics, sociology or anthropology) and their integration into medical education are emphasized. Some specific challenges of integration of bioethics education into Lithuanian medical education are discussed.
Conclusions. We suppose that the future of bioethics education should be based not merely on the development of practical competences, but also on maintaining its humanitarian mission to encourage students’ critical thinking and moral sensitivity.
Correspondence to E. Peičius Department of Social Sciences and Humanities, Faculty of Public Health, Medical Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Tilžės 18, LT-47181 Kaunas, Lithuania. E-mail: eimantas.peicius@lsmuni.lt