Do surgical residents need ethics teaching?

Although it is an artificial separation to think about distinguishing the ethical considerations from the surgical decision making for a particular patient, the separation is valuable to emphasize the differences between surgical science and surgical ethics.  The former is dependent on anatomy, physiology, and surgical technique; whereas the latter is dependent on relationships, communication, and patient values.  Although we can train surgical residents to be excellent technicians with a focus purely on surgical science, we can only educate great doctors who are also surgeons by expanding the discussions of optimal surgical care to include the considerations central to surgical ethics.

 [1] This important historical background is courtesy of David Nahrwold, MD.

Dr. Angelos is an ACS Fellow, the Linda Kohler Anderson Professor of Surgery and Surgical Ethics, chief, endocrine surgery, and associate director of the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago.