Forming Conscience: Bioethics Literacy Among Catholic Seminary Students in Colombia

Bioethics education has become established as an essential component for addressing the ethical challenges associated with biomedical development, biotechnology, and decision-making in the healthcare field. Although numerous studies have analyzed the teaching of bioethics among medical students and other health professions, empirical research on bioethics literacy in religious formation contexts remains limited. The objective of this study was to evaluate the level of bioethical knowledge (here operationalized as bioethics literacy) among Catholic seminarians in Colombia and to explore the psychometric properties of a questionnaire designed to measure bioethics literacy in this population. A cross-sectional observational study was conducted through the administration of a structured questionnaire consisting of 32 multiple-choice items with a single correct answer addressing philosophical foundations, personalist bioethics, bioethical principles, clinical bioethics, and issues related to biotechnology. A total of 216 complete questionnaires were analyzed using descriptive statistics and exploratory psychometric analyses, including item difficulty and discrimination, internal consistency, and exploratory factor analysis. The results showed a moderate overall level of bioethics literacy, with better performance in applied domains such as clinical bioethics and bioethical principles, and lower levels of correct responses in philosophical foundations and personalist bioethics. The questionnaire showed moderate internal consistency and a preliminary factorial structure, suggesting its usefulness as an exploratory tool for assessing bioethical knowledge in seminary educational contexts. These results highlight the importance of strengthening the integration between philosophical and theological education and the applied analysis of bioethical problems in seminary educational programs.