Medical Ethics and Law: Is the Chapter Neglected by Medical Students

Introduction: Attack on doctors by patient's relative has increased of late. This is due to lack of understanding of doctor-patient relationship or medical ethics and law by the doctors than anything else. Medical ethics and law is taught to under graduate students.

Objective: To evaluate if the under graduate students have adequate knowledge on medical ethics and law.

Material and Method: A cross-sectional, questionnaire-based, anonymised, evaluation of students, who completed the course of medical ethics and law, was carried out.

Result: 44.6% of the students had poor knowledge on medical ethics and law.

Conclusion: Under graduate students do not have adequate knowledge on medical ethics and law. Knowledge can be modified by teachers of forensic medicine, who can create interest and motivating students to follow the path of medical ethics and law. If required curriculum may be modified and ancient Indian medical ethics may be introduced. The process of selection of medical students may be made more stringent.