부산대학교 도서관

Given the current clinical situation, there is an increasing need for ethics education programs for medical professionals’ ethical sensitivity. We studied the issue of medical ethics education in terminal care by examining the difference in consciousness for euthanasia and dignity between medical students and liberal arts students. The data obtained were statistically analyzed with regard to the students’ field of specialty. When considering euthanasia, medical students held the opinion of “disagree” for their family and for themselves more frequently than liberal arts students. The medical students who were clinicians, held the opinion of “agree” for ‘dignity with meeting conditions’ more frequently than liberal arts students. Most medical students desired legislation for ‘death with dignity’ though the opinions of liberal arts students were divided between “desire” and “not desire” regarding dignity and euthanasia. From the results obtained there were definite differences between the 2 groups of students. The conclusion seems to be that medical students would not perform passive euthanasia or death with dignity, and their moral conscientiousness was shaken by the sense of resistance to ethical issues in terminal care. It is very important for not only medical students but also clinicians to develop their ethical sensitivity by medical ethics education. The present study seems to indicate that the upward and downward fluctuations between medical knowledge and the clinical issues regarding medical ethics education have become recently considered to be important even in terminal care.