Opinion and Debate: Medical education: value based teaching

Education which does not inculcate values has great perils. Is it beneficial to carry the burden of formal education and be un-amenable to reason or logic? A surgeon without internal (thought through) value system is worse than a technician, who is expected to be better skilled in the procedures. It is the distinction of knowing when not to operate (rather than how to operate) which defines a distinguished surgeon from a good one. The issue of ethics in the field of biomedical research and practice has gained attention in recent times. Physicians find themselves at the receiving end with declining standards of practice and abuse of their status.