The consciousness of controversial medical treatments among university students in Japan *
In exploring the issue of how to provide education on bioethics to university students in Japan, we examined four subjects:justifiable induced abortion, sex reassignment surgery, surrogate & host mother contracts and euthanasia. These are borderline medical treatments due to the related ethical, social and legal issues. Four classes on controversial medical treatments were conducted one time each academic year as part of the bioethics course from 1999 to 2002. In order to determine the students' levels of consciousness regarding bioethical issues, the students were asked to choose one of the following three answers regarding a topic given:agree, disagree or can't say one way or the other. The students were then asked to comment concerning their reason for choosing the particular answer and give any other remarks. The data was then statistically analyzed regarding the students' sex, and field of specialty. The similarities and differences were examined using the chi-squared test. No significant differences regarding the level of consciousness of bioethical issues between the male group and the female group were found. When considering abortion and euthanasia, medical students held the opinion of 'disagree' more frequently than those in other disciplines. From these results, it might be concluded that the medical students believe that the aim of medicine should be to save life, rather than to shorten it. Regarding controversial medical treatments, there is a necessity for the promotion of medical, moral and ethical education for medical students as well as the general public. (Accepted on December ８，2005)
