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Journal of Medical Ethics 2004;30:490-493; doi:10.1136/jme.2003.004697
Copyright © 2004 by the BMJ Publishing Group Ltd & Institute of Medical Ethics.
J Med Ethics 2004;30:490-493
© 2004 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd & Institute of Medical Ethics

TEACHING AND LEARNING ETHICS

Avoiding evasion: medical ethics education and emotion theory

C Leget

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
C Leget
University Medical Centre Nijmegen, PO Box 9101, 232 EFG Nijmegen, 6500 HB, the Netherlands; c.leget{at}efg.umcn.nl

ABSTRACT

Beginning with an exemplary case study, this paper diagnoses and analyses some important strategies of evasion and factors of hindrance that are met in the teaching of medical ethics to undergraduate medical students. Some of these inhibitions are inherent to ethical theories; others are connected with the nature of medicine or cultural trends. It is argued that in order to avoid an attitude of evasion in medical ethics teaching, a philosophical theory of emotions is needed that is able to clarify on a conceptual level the ethical importance of emotions. An approach is proposed with the help of the emotion theory Martha Nussbaum works out in her book Upheavals of thought. The paper ends with some practical recommendations.

Keywords: emotions; ethical theories; education


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This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Leget, C., Olthuis, G. (2007). Compassion as a basis for ethics in medical education. J. Med. Ethics 33: 617-620 [Abstract] [Full Text]  

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