Perfection, thinks Korva, in some part of herself that lives between the placid outer mask and the locked-up inner thing that seems to have devolved into a child that wants to throw a silent tantrum about being given such a horrible question so early. Hush, she tells the child, only because she doesn't have the bandwidth to be harsh without triggering something worse. There's no one in here to be hurt by it but us.

How would the healers act in a perfect world? A world that was 'perfect' according to someone who could stand no pain, except under very particular circumstances when some small amount might be meted out by the state?

She waits a few seconds, to see if anyone else has a suggestion. Apparently not. Fine, then.

"Treating anyone who comes to you for aid?"

Thank you, student, for suggesting something actually good. "That is one of them." On the black board it goes. "You can require payment-- you need to eat too-- but you have to treat anyone having an emergency, and you can't decide not to treat someone because of who they are."

"You should... keep studying and make sure that you know everything there is to know about medicine?" Minelia says, making a safe play.

"You should definitely know as much as you can. But you can't know everything, and you can still act ethically." Still goes on the board as a good suggestion.

"You should treat everyone with kindness and respect!" Biana says, deploying several of the Goodness-related nouns she's heard of from books. 

"That's definitely one of them." And it can go on the board with no elaboration.

None of the other students are answering. The calcuation is simple:

1. If Bun doesn't get any answers, then maybe this shows that no one has a good model of ethics, and that's bad, but they probably aren't going to punish everyone for not answering. 
2. If Bun does get an answer, and it's wrong, then the person who gives a wrong answer is definitely going to be punished and it's much worse than the punishment they'd give everyone. 

So there is no upside here. 

One of the skills you need as a medical student is to be able to be pointed at a patient and come up with something plausible to say about any question asked at them, while your instructor looks at you and you are filled with the knowledge you have somehow answered wrong.

It's their first hour learning. It's okay if they're bad at it.

He writes 'First Do No Harm' and 'Informed Consent' on the board. "These are some of the basic principles that underlie most medical ethics. You must as a doctor do your utmost to avoid harm. You cannot be perfect-- many treatments have harms as well as benefits-- but you always have to weigh the benefits. You cannot use your medical knowledge to harm people, such as by torturing or executing them.

"Informed consent means you must tell your patients what you want to do to them-- the risks, the benefits, how likely it is to work-- and get their permission before treating them."

Now, because they're not escaping saying things that easily (they have got to practice?). "Does anyone want to give some examples of how they might come up in real life?" 

...you can't use your medical knowledge to torture people? What is the point of medical knowledge?

This is the most Chaotic Good thing Biana has ever heard of. 

He is perfectly capable of waiting for an answer. (If he times it right, the silence will be more uncomfortable for the students than him.)

...Well, if no one else is going to ask it then Quina will and take the punishment, this is getting embarrassing. "Sir, what are the expectations for class participation?"

"I don't necessarily expect you all to answer every time, but I do expect at least some of you to answer. If the same few people keep answering, I will call on other people." Not in the first class, he will give them time to get comfortable, but it's important to make it clear that they can't hide early on.

All right, Quina can totally parrot back to Bun what he's saying and leave the hard questions to someone else, that's clearly the winning strategy here. "Informed consent has to come up every time you treat anyone, right? Because you always have to explain what you're doing."

"Yes,  that's true."

"If you think a treatment might be useless, you shouldn't do it," Minelia said, continuing her string of safe plays.

"Yes, that's a good example. There are some complications depending on how likely you think it is to be useless, or what evidence you have for it not being useful. "

"You... shouldn't experiment with new medicines and should just stick with the ones you know?" Biana tries. 

"That's a good suggestion. You can experiment,  but only if you are reasonably sure the risks are worth the benefits, and have the patient's permission. But you should stick mostly to things you know work."