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Biomedical subjects

Donnie J Self

Publications and source records attributed to Donnie J Self.

11 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1993

Is ethics consultation dangerous?

Scofield's article is an extremely important paper that is well-written, carefully and articulately argued, but fundamentally wrong, i.e., philosophically wrong. His position ultimately leads to pure subjectivism of values or a radical relativism of values where anyone's judgment about values is just as good as anyone else's judgment. He holds that in matters of ethical decision making there is no moral expertise. That is, when it comes to value judgments you cannot get them right and you cannot get them wrong. This position undermines the very possibility of ethics -- at least normative ethics, which is what Scofield objects to ethics consultants doing. But common sense tells us that some value judgments are better than others.

Decision Making↗
PubMed1990

Teaching medical humanities through film discussions.

Following a brief consideration of two contrasting purposes for teaching the medical humanities, a description is given of a film discussion elective course. In contrast to the usual teaching of medical ethics which is primarily a cognitive activity emphasizing the development of a code of principles such as justice, autonomy, and beneficence, the film discussion elective was primarily an affective activity emphasizing the development of an ethical ideal of caring, relatedness, and sensitivity to others. The pass/fail elective, offered for one credit each quarter for two quarters, met once a week for one hour for twenty-four weeks. Each week a film was shown followed by a group discussion. A wide variety of social issues were covered. The objective of the course was to increase the ethical sensitivity of the medical students through promotion of introspection and reflection on social issues. A brief discussion is given of the importance and appropriateness of using film to promote the affective focus of medicine on the relief of the suffering. Examples are given of how the course achieved its objective. A detailed description of the resource materials is provided.

Audiovisual Aids↗