Cambridge Quarterly and Ethics Committees

Rosemary Flanigan
March 16, 2009

I let my subscription of Cambridge Quarterly expire, and just renewed it. I have long treasured CQ because it targeted ethics committees—and still does, I guess, though I have found this current issue rather thin.

The main section features revisiting vulnerability. The lead article defines it as “To be vulnerable means to face a significant probability of incurring an identifiable harm while substantially lacking ability and/or means to protect oneself,” and then goes on with articles about different kinds of vulnerability and different sites (research sites, especially) where different groups are especially vulnerable.

Yes.

But it was an article by a trio of Australian women discussing “Developing ‘Ethical Mindfulness’ in Continuing Professional Development in Healthcare” that I especially enjoyed—it’s the issue of ongoing education in one’s competence to recognize an ethical moment and to analyze it.

That sums up the 25 year history of the Center’s work—but the women’s approach is especially through the use of narratives. Still, it is not enough to do a superb job of educating well if the receivers of all that good learning do not practice what they’ve learned.

Nothing new there, but it’s good to be reminded.