The impact of new medical technology has made bioethics a very important subject to study. As we all know, ethics is an academic discipline and a science of relationship. The purpose of teaching bioethics is not merely to rule people by ethical principles, but to enhance the abilities of ethical thinking and decision-making. Ethical decision-making should be founded on rational consideration; theoretical deliberation is the basic way to improve reasoned thinking and analysis. In this article, two major ethical theories are discussed, utilitarianism and deontology. The former locates rightness and wrongness in the consequences of our behavior, while the later holds that the nature of behavior is of utmost importance and consequently has nothing to do with morals or ethics. Even though we are convinced that neither of them are perfect, we might consider one of them to be considerably more adequate and decide to be guided by it. In summary, the practice of medicine requires one to be familiar with traditional ethical theories and to be able to apply theories in clinical work along with contextual considerations of ethics.
