The role of global bioethics in medical pedagogy

Abstract

The study of global biomedical ethics warrants the attention, scholarship, and commitment afforded to the study of general medical ethics. While it is difficult to precisely define the field, it basically comprises the ethical provision of healthcare and investigation across borders, which takes into account disparate societal and individual normative values. Medical ethics is primarily patient-centric; global biomedical ethics is focused on patients insofar as they comprise communities. Global biomedical ethics eschews imperialist approaches. Instead, the field seeks to promote approaches that comport with relevant principled approaches.

Ultimately, the field of global biomedical ethics orients the integrity of the medical profession within society. Global biomedical ethics is important for all clinicians and investigators, and should not be relegated to those who address disease that affects people in a region where the physician does not reside. The field contextualizes the practice of medicine and research within the world community. Global biomedical ethics inexorably enhances the doctor’s own propioperception of his profession and his place within the world.