Teaching and assessing ethics and law in the dental curriculum

The General Dental Council's recommendations on dental education places a n ew emphasis on the importance of ethics and law in the dental curriculum, s tating that students should have an awareness of moral and ethical responsi bilities involved in the provision of care to individual patients and to po pulations.(1) The duties of care to protect a patient's life and health at all times, to respect their autonomy to make informed choices about what ha ppens ta them, and to do this fairly and without prejudice, are widely acce pted as the fundamental ethical principles governing all health care. The s pecifics of these duties of care are detailed in Maintaining Standards: gui dance to dentists on professional and personal conduct, published by the GD C.(2)