The teaching of bioethics and the thematic choices of students

Abstract The teaching of Bioethics in the curricular unit of Ethics II of a nursing degree course in Setúbal, Portugal, from 2008/2009 to 2016/2017, was based on the premise of the students’ free choice to study and deepen their knowledge of the topic. In this article, we contextualized this pedagogical practice, identifying and analyzing the students’ choices, problematizing changes over the course of nine academic years in a short relationship with debates in civil society and changes in bylaw. The most commonly chosen themes were beginnings of life (voluntary pregnancy, surrogate gestation), end-of-life (euthanasia, dysthanasia) and biotechnologies (donation and organ transplantation). The conclusions suggest the themes were chosen due to the relationship between bioethics and professional training, but also a bioethical education for citizenship.

摘要
本研究针对葡萄牙塞图巴尔某护理学学士学位课程《伦理学II》课程单元在2008/2009至2016/2017学年期间开展的生命伦理学（Bioethics）教学展开分析。该教学以学生自主选择学习并深化该主题知识为核心前提。本文对该教学实践进行情境化梳理，识别并剖析学生的选题倾向，探讨九个学年间的选题变迁，并简要结合公民社会中的伦理辩论与法规修订展开问题审视。
学生选择频率最高的主题涵盖生命肇始（自愿妊娠、代孕）、生命终末（安乐死、临终拖延治疗）以及生物技术议题（器官捐献与移植）。研究结论显示，学生之所以选择上述主题，既源于生命伦理学与护理职业培训的内在关联，也契合面向公民的生命伦理教育目标。