New UK consensus statement on core curriculum in medical ethics and law

The most important paper in this month’s JME is not a standard paper but the new UK consensus statement on the core curriculum in medical ethics and law for medical students (see page 55). The first consensus statement was published in the JME in 1998 and has been instrumental in ensuring the embedding of a common standard of teaching in these subjects across UK medical schools.1 However, even the most hard core moral realist has to accept that, even if the fundamental principles of ethics do not change, the best way to teach it might evolve and the problems of most interest may change as the healthcare system changes. The core curriculum can therefore not be cast in stone and must be revised and updated from time to time. The current revision is the result of an extensive process involving reviews of the way …