Dr Julia Hynes, Lead for Medical Ethics and Law at the Medical School gave a public lecture about ‘Ethics in Medicine’ on April 7, 2014.  The presentation examined the history of medical ethics and discussed how this discipline came to be firmly integrated into the medical curriculum.  Dr Hynes started by mentioning that the rapid and continuing development of medical science in the last fifty years has brought with it an increasingly recognised need among health care professionals and wider society for a consideration of the ethical dimension of medical science and clinical practice. Ethical dilemmas are present throughout the cycle of life, ranging from withholding life sustaining treatment in those nearing the end of their life to selecting embryos that can become a ‘saviour sibling’ at the beginning of life. Consequently in last few decades moral philosophers and the medical profession have responded to the rising number of medical-ethical dilemmas, in general, with the creation of a somewhat new field of intellectual activity, namely, medical ethics and in particular with the establishment of clinical ethical committees. Medical ethics is an invaluable part of the curriculum of medical students today.