Bioetičko obrazovanje u srednjoj školi

Abstract

As a new program Ethics has been introduced into high school education in the Republic of Croatia (2002), the topic of Bioethics is covered in the third year of study. The aim of educa-tion in Bioethics is to acquaint students with subjects in the field of bioethics and teach them to engage in creative dialogue in articulating and resolving moral dilemmas. The framework of the course has been formed in five teaching units:

– Man in life as a whole

– Bioethics as a response

– Ecology and environmental protection

– Bioethics and the biological sciences

– Medical bioethics

The students achieve competence in a universal context, that is an area including all people and the concept of pluriperspectivity, which includes dialogue between all relevant approach-es. Although bioethics education in high schools is limited to one year and in vocational schools even less, it is a basis for identifying the existential issues of nature and man and mastering methods of conducting dialogues in differing points of view. A special feature of this program is the possibility for teachers and students to form points of view regarding moral dilemmas in the world surrounding them. It is also a program that includes knowledge of the historical context of different points of view and a program of translating it into the language of contemporary moral judgement. The high school age is a time when questions of natural rights and rights attained by the course of civilization are questioned and evaluated, and they deserve a place in the education process. We hope that this framework of bioethics education is worthy of this, and that the offer of concepts and teaching content within that framework is an incentive to attain the goals set.