Teaching of human rights in US medical schools
J. Sonis, D. W. Gorenflo, P. Jha and C. Williams
Department of Family Practice, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor 48109-0708, USA. jsonis@umich.edu.
OBJECTIVE: To determine the extent to which human rights issues are
included in required bioethics curricula in US medical schools and to
identify medical school characteristics associated with the extent of human
rights issues covered. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey. PARTICIPANTS:
Bioethics course directors and bioethics section directors of 125 US
medical schools. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: The extent of human rights teaching
at each school was measured as the percentage of 16 human rights issues.
RESULTS: Course directors at 113 (90%) of the 125 US medical schools
responded to the survey. Medical schools included about half (45%; 95%
confidence interval, 41%-49%) of 16 human rights issues in their required
bioethics curricula. Domestic human rights issues, such as discrimination
in the provision of health care to minorities (82% of medical schools),
were covered much more frequently than international human rights issues,
such as physician participation in torture (17% of schools). Public medical
schools included substantially fewer human rights issues than private
medical schools (F[1,112]=7.7; P<.01). CONCLUSIONS: Required courses in
medical education do not adequately address the medical aspects of human
rights issues, especially international issues.
