Medical Ethics

Medical ethics describes the moral principles that doctors must abide by. You
need to understand the concepts of medical ethics, but you don't need to be an
expert. It is worth noting that medical ethics is an ever-changing ideal. What
might be considered ethical 30 years ago may no longer apply today-what we
now think of ethical may change.

Consequentialism is an ethical ideology that states the morality of an action is

dependent purely on its consequences. A simpler way to phrase this would be
that the “ends justify the means”. If your action has an overall benefit, then it
does not matter about the action itself.

One of the best ways to develop your understanding of medical ethics is to

practice analyzing situations using ethical frameworks and ideologies. You can
do this on your own, with a teacher, or with a fellow medical school applicant
who could give you their perspective and share ideas. Try to compare the
outcomes given by different frameworks and consider the implications of this.

Some ethical problems are straightforward, such as determining right from

wrong. But others can also be more perplexing, such as deciding between two
"rights"—two values that are in conflict with each other—or deciding between
two different value systems, such as the patient's versus the doctor's.

Doctors may deal with a great variety of perplexing ethical problems even in a
small medical practice.