Ethical Medical School Applicants?

"The authors suggest that screening for character traits consistent with certain personality disorders is a reasonable step to take in medical school admissions."

"[T]he authors address character traits as indicators of the virtues associated with medicine. They cite a list of descriptors used by physicians to describe inappropriate behavior and attitudes observed in medical students, which includes "selfish," "amoral," "rude," "aggressive," "rigid," and "judgmental." The authors draw a link between these descriptors and traits listed in the psychiatric diagnosis of personality disorders. Since there is an overlap between DSM-IV criteria and moral judgments, the authors reject the movement to keep the two separate and conclude, ". . . we believe it is entirely appropriate to use some of the tools of psychiatry to investigate morality. A logical place to start is to screen applicants with standard questionnaires for the diagnosis of personality disorders.""