Re-thinking degrees in clinical ethics (and law) – a contextual experience

Abstract

The University of Malta has had a Master of Arts in Bioethics for several years delivered by the Faculty of Theology. Although there were medics invited to teach in this degree the Bioethics Research Programme of the Faculty of Medicine noted that the degree was top theoretical and was not meeting the needs of the Faculty and the attached hospital. Rather it contended that it needed to train medics in Clinical Ethics and to prepare some of them to specialise in the field. Following failed attempts to either change the MA degree to cater for these needs or to have a collaborative degree, the Faculty of Medicine & Surgery proposed that a new degree by designed. This did raise some debate but finally both faculties participated in each other’s degree course. Within the local context a distinction had to be made to distinguish bioethics from the more skill-approached version, which it called Clinical Ethics, acknowledging that in many countries bioethicists may be skill-trained to work in the hospital environment. The paper discusses the development and philosophy of the Master of Science in Clinical Ethics & Law within the Faculty of Medicine & Surgery and give a description of the modules involved and the importance to acknowledge the difference between a theoretical degree in bioethics and one which provides bioethicists with skills that enable them to practice clinical ethics on the ward.