On 2 August 2022, the SMA Centre for Medical Ethics and Professionalism (CMEP) hosted an appreciation dinner for its teaching faculty at Novotel Singapore on Stevens. It was attended by SMA President Dr Tan Yia Swam, SMA's executive committee council members and SMA CMEP's board of advisors.
The dinner commenced with a cocktail reception with fine wine specially selected by Dr Lee Pheng Soon. A/Prof Anantham Devanand, incoming Executive Director of SMA CMEP, welcomed everybody and thanked the faculty for their continuous support.
As Dr Lee Pheng Soon steps down as Executive Director, we are grateful to him for institutionalising a structure for SMA CMEP. He has steered the smooth organisation of the ethics courses through all the disruptions of COVID-19 and has built up a strong cadre of faculty members. He is also one of the best-ranked faculty teachers based on participants' feedback and we hope that he will carry on imparting wisdom for many years to come.
Some Truths about Ethics
Ethics are about our collective values as a profession and finding the integrity to make difficult decisions when a compromise is so much easier to swallow. Ethics are about navigating the fine line between competing demands of each unique case and living out with resolve the purpose that our profession was set up for. The absolute answers to the big questions can remain elusive - should patient welfare trump their autonomy, for instance - but we cannot escape trying to answer them. These questions are part of everyday clinical practice, and we live out a solution with every single professional decision. Ethics will help us make better decisions and then in turn question those decisions. Each step forward brings with it more questions, more quandaries and, so it follows, more reflection. From this interlocked churning, perhaps Aristotle's practical wisdom will emerge -practitioners with moral will and moral skill, practitioners who will bring to the bedside a dedicated practice of valuing service over reward. The SMA CMEP is our beacon to guide fellow travellers onwards on such a journey – A/Prof Anantham Devanand
We look forward with confidence for the continued growth of SMA CMEP under the leadership of A/Prof Anantham Devanand.