Teaching medical ethics in Basra: perspective of students and graduates.

The University of Basra Medical College introduced a course on medical ethics for undergraduate students in 1994. We explored the opinions of 54 graduates and 52 final-year medical students about the benefits they perceive they gained from the course and its relevance to their training or practice. About 31% of students and 34% of graduates thought the course was practically and theoretically useful. Over 80% of graduates and students thought the course was either very relevant or relevant to some extent to the practice of medicine. When asked to recall the important ethical issues taught in the course, 52% of graduates and 44% of students listed patient-doctor relationship. Confidentiality, physician liability and ethical issues concerning recent medical innovations were listed by few respondents. Only 6% of both graduates and students were able to list the four principles of medical ethics as described by Raanan. The self-learning component of the course should be developed to strengthen ethical reasoning and judgment in decision-making.