In some disciplines, such as medicine, the study of ethics has gained in importance in recent decades.
Although an initial reason for this was probably an increase in litigation, the desire for education in
medical ethics has taken on increased importance in the minds of many students and practitioners.
Formal training in clinical ethics is now the rule rather than the exception in medical education. Ethics
committees are now standard in most hospitals. Forums for discussion of ethical problems are common
in medical settings. This type of interest in ethics will only occur in science if and when faculty become
serious about the subject. It will only occur when faculty see the training of their students in ethics as an
important part of their responsibility as mentors rather than as a threat to their security as authority
figures. Finally, ethics will only become a standard part of graduate education when it becomes an
established part of the graduate school curriculum. We hope that this will occur at most institutions
before the numbers of misconduct cases make it a federally mandated necessity