Pediatricians working in low-resource environments encounter ethical problems that differ from those seen in wealthier healthcare systems. Only a small number of studies from developing nations have examined how pediatricians understand, perceive, and navigate the ethical challenges inherent to such settings. To contribute to this limited body of evidence, we investigated the clinical ethical knowledge, attitude, and experience of physicians employed in the Department of Pediatrics and Child Health (DPCH) at St Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College (SPHMMC) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The study included all pediatric consultants and pediatric resident doctors serving in the DPCH of SPHMMC during December 2020. Between December 15 and 27, 2020, we administered a pretested, structured, self-completed questionnaire to all 79 eligible participants. The tool evaluated the respondents’ knowledge (23 items), attitude (9 items), and experiences (9 items) concerning multiple aspects of bioethics. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS version 20.0 for Windows, and descriptive statistics—including means, medians, standard deviations, and interquartile ranges—were calculated. Comparisons were made using Fisher’s exact test. Fifty-nine of the 79 physicians (75%) returned completed questionnaires. Participants had a mean age of 30.7 ± 4.1 years, and 36 (61.0%) were female. More than half (57.6%) had less than five years of clinical practice. The average ethics knowledge score was 12.3 ± 2.34 out of 23, with individual scores ranging from 8 to 19. Respondents demonstrated the strongest knowledge in areas related to confidentiality (94.9% correct), whereas topics on genetic testing and diagnosis yielded the lowest scores (13.6% correct). Only 13 physicians (22.4%) endorsed the statement that children should never receive treatment without parental consent. Pediatricians working in this tertiary care setting in Ethiopia demonstrated limited familiarity with current bioethics standards. These findings underscore the need to strengthen ethics education within this clinical environment.
