Beyond the Bioethical Checklist: Reclaiming Catholic Moral Theology in Addressing Ethical Issues Encountered by Medical Students

Medical students often face ethical challenges during clinical training. While secular bioethics offers guidance, many still experience moral distress that principle-based frameworks cannot fully address. Using the See–Judge–Act method, this paper tries to address this gap. The See phase examines the lived experiences of medical students within their clinical rotations. The Judge phase discerns these realities in light of Catholic moral teachings, highlighting the formation of conscience and the understanding of medicine as a vocation rather than a mere profession. Grounded in this moral and spiritual vision, the Act phase calls Catholic institutions to move beyond ethical checklists toward a culture of life and love, forming not only clinically competent physicians but morally grounded healers who faithfully uphold the sanctity of life and the dignity of their vocation.