Certainly someone needs to teach it. Most efficient would be for the military to teach it, since not all doctors need it, but under Bush, at least, the military skipped a lot of training, like how to be prison guards. Apparently Bush was so anxious to get to the attacking he didn’t even think about the details that might have led to a successful invasion and might have prevented much of the world from deciding our morals are as bad as the terrorists’ morals.
There was a time the world looked up to the US, but Bush and his Republican cronies have ended those times. There was a time our military was strong and prepared for whatever might come but Bush and his Republican cronies have ended those times. There was a time the US led in finding solutions to the world’s problems but Bush and his Republican cronies have ended those times, too.

The Military should be instructing doctors that join a service, as well as Reserve Doctors. Two hr. course should do it, and teach them how to salute, too. Better times are coming nnmns, hopefully.

Bush accomplished his goal, which was to use our national resources to fight a family battle (sort of like the Sopranos calling out the National Guard). He had no reason to think it through beyond that point. His legacy will be the tens of thousands of deaths and hundreds of thousands of walking wounded.
As to Med students getting military ethics (an Oxymoron of the highest order) courses, many don’t get much interms of regular ethics or any other sort of “soft” training (philosophy, ethics, spirituality, arts, etc…) They are ususally so specialized that there is no time for it. I expect that if a med student is planning a military career they ought to get a lengthy course on this peculiar, particular field. However, making it a discrete set of standards is scary. It should be couched within a larger, cultural set of guidelines and rules of conduct. It would be a curious syllabus to see.

the medical school curriculum is growing at a malignant rate. There is simply too much material to cover in a finite time. Super specialized topics like military ethics are best saved for those few individuals who may need the exposure. We don’t teach much about joint implant surgery in med school. It’s too specialized. Go into ortho and you’ll get it.

My brother-in-law went to Nortre Dame U. for four years, pre-med and got his B.S., he did four years at U. of Nebraska Medical School for his M.D., he did two yrs. internship at Cook County hospital in Chicago. After, he and other doctors opened a clinic in Idaho. All other requirements that other students take during the first four yrs of U. he took, so doctors should have a pretty rounded education, except for Military requirements. The Military should take care of that. My father-in-law was wisked out of his Practise out in CA the first year of WWll, and put into the Navy, as a Lt. Commander, no military training, just put on a ship, sent out into the Pacific and worked around the clock saving the Guadalcanal victims. You would think by now that the Armed Services would train the doctors coming into Military service.

I forgot my brother-in-law, also went to Bob Jones for a yr. or two after internship to become an ordained minister, also. Thought he might use it, but three years into Clinic work he died of cancer. Go figure!

To the best of my knowledge, though admittedly I could be incorrect, the chief ethicist for the Army is a chaplain located at Fort Sam Houston.
The point of the article seems to imply that ALL medical students, regardless of military affiliation, do not receive military ethics. Okay, got it. Then we are presented this nugget:
“Dr. Wesley Boyd, lead author of the study, said reported abuses at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay prisons have galvanized much of the world against the United States.”
Needless to say, these particular issues are more complex than Doc Boyd seems to be suggesting. I’m not sure that some class on compulsory military ethics in all U.S. medical schools (if that is even what he is suggesting – is it?) is, well, moderately related to his contention on perceived abuses perpetrated by persons in the military.
And jestrfyl, your own nugget, “military ethics (an Oxymoron of the highest order)”… do I sense a little disdain??? Such contempt for the military of the U.S. is highly ignorant of those actual militaries which truly lack any ethical guidelines… for more on this matter, please speak with Senator John McCain.

Michael,
My only disdain is that the very concept of “military” flies in the face of the Judeo/Christian mandate to love all people. This applies to ALL military, not only at our own. I am pragmatic enough to recognize the need for military forces. But to pretend there is some line they will not cross or some ethic they will honor even in the fiercest conditions is silly. I think the finest, clearest, most honest statement of military ethics was summed by by George C. Scott, in the opening monologue of “Patton”.

Medicine has a sufficient code of ethics. It is taught in medical schools everywhere. That military personnel violated their code of ethics does not suggest for a moment that medical schools should be (or reasonably could be) called upon to correct the military’s error. Let the military clean up its own house. Medicine did not make the mess.