Human ritghts in medical training

Abstract

This research aims to investigate the introduction of the human rights framework in the training of medical students. The methodology adopted in this article has involved two approaches: a theoretical approach, on the interconnection between Medicine and human rights; and an empirical one,  which aimed to investigate the studies about the connection between human rights and Medicine in the Brazilian literature and identify the incorporation of the human rights framework in the National Curriculum Standards for Medicine and analyze the human rights content present in the curricular matrices of Undergraduate Medical Courses in the Federal District. It was concluded that it is essential that professionals be trained in the culture of human rights, because doctors will be more attentive to the universal obligation to respect the differences of each individual and the fact that the practice of medicine is not charity, but the realization of the human right to health. Empirical research has shown that there is a lack of studies on the interconnection between human rights and Medicine, and that there is a gap regarding the insertion of human rights in the Schools of Medicine curriculum, despite the fact that the National Curriculum Standards mention human rights. Considering the Undergraduate Medical Courses in the Federal District, although there are some programs that consider a humanistic training, in general, they have not expressly incorporated the human rights framework into their curriculum matrices.