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Medical Ethics

Alright guys I am sitting Religious Studies with Edexcel and taking the Mod 1 and 2 exams in January. I understand mod 1 is of course on foundations but module 2 is invesigations - I have chosen ethics and have material on medical ethics in my book. I have checked the specification and it appears that this module is more research based? In my book I have info on euthanasia, abortion and genetic engineering - what else do I have to know for this exam? Can anyone help me out with some revision material and tips on how do to do well in the medical ethics module?

Sorry for the silyl question, I'm taking this exam as a private candidate and am not at sixth form or anything. Cheers.
Reply 1
Yeah, you're right. Unit 2 is really research-focused, and the exam question tends to be rather vague. This means you can really write it the way you want to, and can basically blag yourself an A.

I sat option C: a study of ethics in June and was given this question: "Examine and comment on the view that developments in medical ethics should be
guided by religious principles, with reference to the topic you have investigated."


So what I did was research one ethical issue (organ transplants) and then analyse the many different ethical dilemmas within organ transplant with references to the reilgious principles.

The religious principles being:

Sanctity of life

Quality of life

Personhood

Rights and responsibilities

Consent


And then I went through all the dilemmas within organ transplantation (distribution of organs, taking organs from people in comas, taking organs from animals, paying for organs etc), and wrote about how each of the religious principles applies to each dilemma.

We didn't get given any books for it, so we just researched on the internet. For the exam, make sure you have a very clear structure and ALWAYS link back to the question. Summaries, quotes, leave spaces - set it out well. That's what I did and I got 96/100, so I must've done something right! :biggrin:

Hope this helps, and if you have any others questions feel free to ask.
Reply 2
Original post by Lintu93
Yeah, you're right. Unit 2 is really research-focused, and the exam question tends to be rather vague. This means you can really write it the way you want to, and can basically blag yourself an A.

I sat option C: a study of ethics in June and was given this question: "Examine and comment on the view that developments in medical ethics should be
guided by religious principles, with reference to the topic you have investigated."


So what I did was research one ethical issue (organ transplants) and then analyse the many different ethical dilemmas within organ transplant with references to the reilgious principles.

The religious principles being:

Sanctity of life

Quality of life

Personhood

Rights and responsibilities

Consent


And then I went through all the dilemmas within organ transplantation (distribution of organs, taking organs from people in comas, taking organs from animals, paying for organs etc), and wrote about how each of the religious principles applies to each dilemma.

We didn't get given any books for it, so we just researched on the internet. For the exam, make sure you have a very clear structure and ALWAYS link back to the question. Summaries, quotes, leave spaces - set it out well. That's what I did and I got 96/100, so I must've done something right! :biggrin:

Hope this helps, and if you have any others questions feel free to ask.


Bloody 'eck that sounds great! I'm liking euthanasia so I can just focus all my research on that particular topic? That question you got looks nice too, same religious principles would apply to euthanasia, barring ofcourse personhood :tongue:

Thanks for that one, made things a lot clearer. :yy:
Reply 3
Yep, I know a few people who did euthanasia. Just make sure you research all the ethical dilemmas within euthanasia and find some quotes and statistics about euthanasia. Also, some quotes about the religious principles might be handy. :smile:

Also, whoops, I lied, sorry. The question I got in the summer was "With reference to the topic you have investigated, examine and comment on the issues that emerge from keeping up with developments in medical ethics whilst maintaining religious principles and/or ethical values."

The other question was from 2009. Just shows that you can reseach the same thing and tailor it to the question in the exam.
(edited 13 years ago)

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