title: Medical students and controversial ethical issues: results from the multicenter study SBRAME.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Medical students(MS) will face ethical issues throughout their lives as doctors. The present study aims to investigate medical students' opinions on controversial ethical issues and factors associated with these opinions.
  
  
  METHODS
  SBRAME (Spirituality and Brazilian Medical Education) is a multicenter study involving 12 Brazilian medical schools with 5950 MS. Participants completed a questionnaire that collected information on socio-demographic data, medical schools characteristics, religious beliefs and opinions on controversial ethical issues. Of all MS, 3630 participated in the survey (61.0%).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The sample was 53.8% women and the mean age was 22.5 years. In general, most MS have no objections to prescription of birth control (90.8%), adult stem cell use (87.5%), embryonic stem cell use (82.0%) and abortion for genetic reasons (51.2%). Approximately half of students have no objections to human cloning (47.3%), 45.7% to withdrawal of artificial life support, 41.4% to euthanasia and 23.3% to abortion for failed contraception. Socio-demographic data such as age, gender and income had little influence on MS opinions. On the other hand, medical schools characteristics (number of medical students in the university, year of medical school foundation, location of the university and type of university) and religious aspects (religious affiliation, religious attendance, non-organizational religiousness and intrinsic religiousness) were highly correlated with their opinions. In general, MS with more supportive opinions on controversial ethical issues were less religious and from non-traditional (newer), urban, public and bigger universities.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The current study reveals MS have different opinions regarding controversial ethical issues. Noteworthy, these opinions seem to be shaped more by university characteristics and religious beliefs than socio-demographic data.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, Brazil. g.lucchetti@yahoo.com.br.
authors.forename: Giancarlo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lucchetti
authors.forename: Leandro Romani
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: de Oliveira
authors.forename: José Roberto
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Leite
authors.forename: Alessandra Lamas Granero
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Lucchetti
mesh_terms: D000028:Abortion, Induced / Q000941:ethics; D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D026688:Bioethical Issues; D001938:Brazil; D019976:Cloning, Organism / Q000941:ethics; D003270:Contraceptive Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage; D011307:Drug Prescriptions / Q000592:standards; D005065:Euthanasia / Q000941:ethics; D005180:Faculty, Medical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017149:Private Sector; D017150:Public Sector; D012067:Religion; D012424:Rural Population; D012577:Schools, Medical / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D057905:Stem Cell Research / Q000941:ethics; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014505:Urban Population; D028761:Withholding Treatment / Q000941:ethics; D000078329:Workforce
chemical_list: D003270:Contraceptive Agents