Teaching Requirements in the Field of Bioethics According to Secondary School Framework Education Programmes
Abstract
This article presents a qualitative content analysis of the Czech secondary school programs, the Framework Education Programmes (RVP) focused on both medical and environmental bioethics. The aim was to find out what affective goals in the field of bioethics these documents set.
Although the word bioethics is not used in any of them, in all of the studied documents prescriptive requirements from the field of environmental ethics can be found: Especially, pupils should feel responsibility for the environment and respect the principles of sustainable development. Medical bioethics is completely omitted, except for one notion in a grammar school Framework Education Programme ("knowledge of assisted reproduction").
Bioethics is related to natural science and social science education and to the cross-cutting topic "Man and the Environment", i.e., in the subjects of biology and civics. In most of the documents studied, the need to discuss ethically sensitive scientific issues is emphasized.
The grammar school Framework Education Programme has the greatest demands in the field of bioethics; it expects pupils to think out their own values in relation to nature and everyday moral issues.