TY - JOUR T1 - Avoiding evasion: medical ethics education and emotion theory JF - Journal of Medical Ethics JO - J Med Ethics SP - 490 LP - 493 DO - 10.1136/jme.2003.004697 VL - 30 IS - 5 AU - C Leget Y1 - 2004/10/01 UR - http://jme.bmj.com/content/30/5/490.abstract N2 - 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. ER -