Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-zzh7m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T12:27:00.567Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

5 - Interpretation and dialogue in hermeneutic ethics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2009

By
Guy Widdershoven
Edited by
Richard Ashcroft ,
Anneke Lucassen ,
Michael Parker ,
Marian Verkerk  and
Guy Widdershoven
Guy Widdershoven
Affiliation:
Professor of Ethics, University of Maastricht
Richard Ashcroft
Affiliation:
Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London
Anneke Lucassen
Affiliation:
University of Southampton
Michael Parker
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
Marian Verkerk
Affiliation:
Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, The Netherlands
Guy Widdershoven
Affiliation:
Universiteit Maastricht, Netherlands
Get access

Summary

In healthcare practice, patients and their caregivers can sometimes be confronted with complex and difficult problems. The situation confronting Jane and Phyllis in the case described in Chapter 2 is a good example. Should Jane have a mastectomy or not? This is not an easy question for her, or for those around her (her husband, her friends and the various healthcare professionals who are involved). Should Phyllis (be made to) cooperate by providing access to her test results? Although Phyllis is outspoken in her refusal, this does not mean that the professionals agree that the case is closed. Those who find themselves in cases such as this one are often uncertain about how to make sense of the situation in which they find themselves. They come up with solutions at one moment, and have doubts about them the next. The participants often have very different views about what is to be done, depending on their former experiences and background.

One way to approach such problems is to try to do away with ambiguities and to reach an objective impartial view of the situation. With this view, if people are hesitant about what would count as appropriate solutions, this is because they do not yet have enough information about risks and benefits, and have not adequately made up their minds about their preferences. Here, if people have different views of the situation, we need to investigate which view is (more) correct.

Type
Chapter
Information
Case Analysis in Clinical Ethics , pp. 57 - 76
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2005

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agich, G. J., (1993). Autonomy and Long-Term Care. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Akrich, M., (1992). The de-scription of technical objects. In Bijker, W. and Law, J., eds., Shaping Technology/Building Society. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 205–24.Google Scholar
Arras, J. D. (1990). Aids and reproductive decisions having children in fear and trembling. Milbank Quarterly, 68, 353–82.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bernstein, R. J., (1983). Beyond Objectivism and Relativism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Emanuel, E. J. and Emanuel, L. L. (1992). Four models of the physician–patient relationship. JAMA, 267, 2221–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Frank, A. W., (1995). The Wounded Storyteller. Chicago: Chicago University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gadamer, H.-G., (1960). Wahrheit und Methode. Tübingen: Mohr.Google Scholar
Gadamer, H.-G. (1977). Die Aktualität des Schönen. Stuttgart: Reclam.Google Scholar
Habermas, J., (1991). Erläuterungen zur Diskursethik. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.Google Scholar
Heidegger, M., (1927). Sein und Zeit. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag.Google Scholar
Husserl, E., (1976). Ideen zu einer reinen Phanomenologie und phanomenologischen Philosophie. Erstes Buch. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.Google Scholar
Leder, D., (1994). Toward a hermeneutical bioethics. In Dubose, E., Hamel, R. and O'Connell, L., eds., A Matter of Principles?Valley Forge: Trinity Press International, 240–59.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, A., (1981). After Virtue. London: Duckworth.Google Scholar
Mackenzie, C. and Stoljar, N. (2000). Relational Autonomy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ricoeur, P., (1983). Temps et récit, I. Paris: Editions du Seuil.Google Scholar
Tronto, J. C., (1993). Moral Boundaries: A Political Argument for an Ethic of Care. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Walker, M. U., (1998). Moral Understandings. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
White, M. T. (1999). Making responsible choices. An interpretive ethic for genetic decision-making. Hastings Center Report, 29(1), 14–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Widdershoven, G. A. M. (1993). The story of life. In Lieblich, A. and Josselson, R., eds., The Narrative Study of Lives. I. London: Sage, 1–20.Google Scholar
Winograd, T. and Flores, F. (1986). Understanding Computers and Cognition. Norwood, New Jersey: Ablex.Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, L., (1957). Philosophische Untersuchungen. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×