60% of doctors oppose ethics testing of medical students

Main Category: Medical Students / Training
Article Date: 03 Jun 2005 - 11:00 PDT

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Six out of ten doctors oppose medical students being given compulsory ethics tests to 'weed out' those who have not absorbed essential principles.

Shipman Inquiry chairwoman Dame Janet Smith proposed the tests last month as a way of eliminating unsuitable candidates for medicine before they began practising.

Doctors in BMA News' monthly poll, while supporting good ethics teaching at university, said that such tests would not stop the likes of Harold Shipman - murderers like him could read the set text and pass an ethics exam like any other student.

The BMA medical students committee has questioned the practicality of the ethics test, but supported a call from Dame Janet for better training in death certification procedures.

Full text of story is available from the Press Office

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