Contribution of Professor Armando Roa to humanities and medical ethics at the University of Chile School of Medicine

Dr. Roa was the first professor of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Chile to give an ethics course to medical students, even when the importance of formal teaching of medical ethics was not yet recognized internationally. His efforts contributed to the creation of the Center for Bioethical and Humanistic Studies in 1988 and to the creation of official ethics courses for first and sixth year medical students in 1993. During 20 years, he chaired the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Chile. He also promoted a diffusion program about medical ethics through meetings, conferences and symposia. He was responsible for the Ministry of Health's decision to create ethics committees in public hospitals in 1988 and for the Presidential decision about organ transplantation in 1995. He carried out anthropology courses and gave numerous lectures on humanistic aspects of medicine. His ethical principles are resumed in what he called the "ethics of generosity", in which the dignity of human beings is respected above all. In his opinion, the way civilizations see goodwill has been preponderant in the course of history. The recent proposal to teach humanistic fundamentals to medical students is a tribute to the memory of Professor Roa.