A patient refuses life saving treatment. A doctor may want to refuse treatment to a smoker with lung cancer. Quick decisions must be made about organ transplant priorities.

In recent years, governing bodies for professional healthcare groups have put renewed commitment into commending the inclusion of ethics and law into the education of health care professionals.

Teaching health care ethics was the subject of an interdisciplinary grand rounds lecture delived May 14 by McMaster health sciences professor Lisa Schwartz.

Schwartz, who was recently appointed to the Arnold L. Johnson Chair in Health Care Ethics, discussed the best way to learn the ethics of health care and the role of educators in the process.

Deborah Cook, McMaster University/St. Joseph's Hospital Regional Academic Chair in Critical Care Medicine, and Sue Baptiste, assistant dean, Master of Clinical Health Sciences Program (Occupational Therapy) also presented talks on the need, and a constructive framework, for including ethics in health care education.

The Interdisciplinary Grand Rounds are presented regularly by the McMaster Program for Faculty Development.