From the Ethicist's Point of View: The Literary Nature of Ethical Inquiry

Abstract

Contra those bioethicists who think that their cases are based on "real" events and thus not motivated by any particular ethical theory, Chambers explores how case narratives are constructed and thus the extent to which they are driven by particular theories.

Critical Bioethics: Beyond the Social Science Critique of Applied Ethics

“…The work of Tod Chambers in particular has disturbed conventional images of the value-neutral case study, and the objectivity of bioethics writing. 74 His literary analysis of the way in which bioethicists write, what they mention, what they leave out, the rhetoric they use to construct their arguments, has led some to fear that he leads bioethics towards 'rhetorical nihilism' and 'moral relativism.' 75 How are bioethicists to write case studies if they are made 'self-conscious' about the nature of their writing?…”

Language and Medicine

“…Among the genres of medical writing that have attracted discourse analysts' attention are the research article (Pettinari 1983;Salager-Meyer et al 1989;Nwogu 1990), its abstract (Salager-Meyer 1990aNwogu 1990), popularizations of medical research in the news media or popular science magazines (Dubois 1986;Salager-Meyer et al 1989;Nwogu 1990), textbooks of medicine and home medical books (Kahn 1983), and -by the lion's share of the literature -hospital patients' medical records or case histories (I use these terms synonymously; references in section 2.3.2 below), including those of bioethics cases (Brock and Ratzan 1988;Chambers 1996aChambers , 1996b). …”

Literature, Literary Studies, and Medical Ethics: The Interdisciplinary Question

“…The case is presented from a narrative stance in a distinctive voice, and the narrator, direct or implied, inevitably makes assumptions about the world and the narratability of events. “To ignore the narrative characteristics that the medical ethics case shares with fiction,” wrote Chambers, “is to confuse representation with the thing it represents—to mistake the story for the reality—and thus to miss the theory in the case.” 11 There is no pure, objective presentation of a case, and, although there may be a cultural or national or professional consensus on the values engaged by a case and principles that apply to it, consensus never forecloses further examination, reinterpretation, and retelling. The medical ethicist's case, far from being a piece of reality isolated for the testing of assumptions and hypotheses, has been constructed from the very materials it purports to test.…”