title: A theoretical framework for human and veterinary medical ethics education.
abstract: In their practice, physicians and veterinarians need to resort to an array of ethical competences. As a teaching topic, however, there is no accepted gold standard for human medical ethics, and veterinary medical ethics is not yet well established. This paper provides a reflection on the underlying aims of human and veterinary medical ethics education. Drawing from published literature on ethics education in the health professions a theoretical framework common to the teaching of human and veterinary medical ethics is proposed, based on three concepts: professional rules, moral virtues and ethical skills. The rules approach relies on the transmission of professional and social values by means of regulatory documents and depends intimately on the knowledge that students have of those documents. The virtues approach involves the inculcation of moral values and virtues that will stimulate students to develop desirable behaviours. The main focus of this approach to ethics is to develop students' attitudinal competences. Finally, the skills approach is focused on equipping the students with the necessary moral reasoning abilities to recognise and respect the plurality of ethical views that make part of contemporary society. This framework can inform future curriculum development in human and veterinary medical ethics as well as in other health care professions.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal. mdsantana@gmail.com.|IBMC - Instituto de Biologia Molecular e Celular, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal. mdsantana@gmail.com.|Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas de Abel Salazar, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal. mdsantana@gmail.com.|School of Veterinary Medicine, 248 Veterinary Sciences Centre, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland. mdsantana@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8317-3633
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Magalhães-Sant'Ana
mesh_terms: D001675:Bioethics / Q000193:education*; D004501:Education, Medical / Q000941:ethics*; D004520:Education, Veterinary / Q000941:ethics*; D006801:Humans; D009014:Morals; D011361:Professional Competence; D000068616:Professionalism / Q000941:ethics
keywords: Ethical skills; Ethics education; Medical ethics; Moral virtues; One Health; Professional rules; Veterinary ethics