I had a recent interview at the University of Washington where the ethics questions were tough because of how my interviewer approached my responses. Any suggestions for dealing with ethics questions where the interviewer are consistently taking your responses and dismissing them or changing the scenario based on how you respond.
I had an interview with UW that was pretty tough, too. They asked a question that had to do with euthanasia. It involved a scenario of a doctor in OR with a patient suffering from terminal cancer and immitigable pain. They wanted to know that if I was this doctor, would I recommend physician assisted suicide? When I gave my answer, they also changed the scenario, asking further questions and taking me to task on the topic. My only guess is that they really want to see how firmly you stand on the topic, and if you can be bullied out of your position. Since there is usually no right or wrong answer with these ethical questions, my guess is that the only thing you can do is to follow your own judgement, instead of saying what you think they want to hear. Of course, I am still in the post-interview “continue to review” category, so who knows what they were hoping for!
I think Hot topics like assisted suicide, abortion, and confidentiality. Read some stories on sites on the web, you will have to google for the stories but they are out there.
There are some resident sites that post these too.
Most important is to think about these issues and how you stand. How you can back up your stance. If you have a formed opinion and policy then you will appear confident in these stances. I don’t think others can tell you how to think it is up to you, but do inform yourself on the topics by reading and debating with friends just like socrates would.