1Associate Professor Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, KPC Medical College. Jadavpur, Kolkata, 700032
2Assistant Professor Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, North Bengal Medical College, Sushruta Nagar, Darjeeling. West Bengal
3Administrative Officer, IIM Rohtak
Introduction: There is an increase in unethical practice by doctors, which is widely, publicized both by electronic and print media. This is due to lack of understanding of Medical ethics or moral values involved in doctor-patient relationship. One of the methods to reduce unethical practice can be selection of medical students based on core ethical knowledge as was done in ancient India.
Objective: To evaluate core ethical knowledge among medical students, before ethics is taught to them in class by teachers and find out means to recruit medical students who are sound in ethics for future ethical doctors.
Material and Method: An anonymised, questionnaire-based, cross-sectional survey of students.
Result: 51.80% of students in the study had core ethical knowledge.
Conclusion: If all selected students have core ethical values and knowledge, unethical practice by doctors will automatically diminish. Ancient India had stringent selection process for pupils who were admitted as medical students,they were honest, humble, temperate, generous. This is practiced in medical schools across US and Europe. This is high time we should change the process of selection to prevent unethical practices and revert to selection of students as was done in ancient India.
Ethical Doctor, Restructure of selection process for Medical students, Reducing unethical practice by doctors
