Virtual

I must say I was horrified probably not for the same reason as yours.

It was not because the question was difficult. (Well, yes, it was.) To say the least, I am sure I know enough about utilitarianism and Kantianism - not from any teaching in medical ethics (which we had none when we were medical students), but from my private study on philosophy.

(I know virtue ethics as well when I look it up from Wikipedia - but I learnt that bit years back in Chinese and was not aware of the English name of this principle.)

And, also not because the score of our students would be low. After all, we draw curves and adjust for the performance of the whole class.

But, I was horrified because an assay question on ethics was put up at all - implying that our faculty did expect our graduates to know the stuff, and some of them really did.

Under what circumstances does a medical practitioner need to know these principles? No, not when he tries to be ethical. It's just the opposite: He only needs all these if his practice is unethical, and therefore he has to use all these dressings to cover up or justify his action.

As Zhuangzi (莊子) said: 聖人不死，大盜不止。《莊子·外篇·胠篋》

Or, to put it simply, it is not virtue ethics that we are teaching - it is virtual ethics.