Awareness and perception of bioethics among medical undergraduate students and interns in a private medical college in Mangalore

Introduction: Ethics or morals are rules or norms for conduct to differentiate between right and wrong. As such medical students have to be provided with scientific knowledge including moral aspects. Before spreading and engraining bioethics in students, we need to determine the prevailing knowledge and attitudes towards bioethics. Methodology: A cross sectional study was done among 316 undergraduate students and 54 interns of Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore. Data were collected using a pretested questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS version 16. Results: 81% of participants knew the definition of bioethics. 84.1% believed that bioethics will be important to them in the future, though 53.5% said that it was never discussed in their class. Conclusion: There is a need for greater discussion and teaching about practices of bioethics to the students in the classroom setting.