tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2263920188140464269.post7454083936821947328..comments2024-03-11T17:51:57.371-07:00Comments on Practical Bioethics: Part II: The Ethics of Sterilizing "P"Practical Bioethicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17111101925898726995noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2263920188140464269.post-9517321861837247582011-02-18T19:08:29.357-08:002011-02-18T19:08:29.357-08:00I don’t particularly like arguing with either of y...I don’t particularly like arguing with either of you, Drs. Flanigan and McGee, but your responses draw me in. <br /><br />I am wondering how either of you, or I, could possibly make a cogent argument for what ought to be done to/for/with Ms. P and her mother in regard to something as personal and particular as sterilization and birth control and having babies. We have read a journalist’s brief account of this case occurring in a faraway place. That’s all. Even if we have found and read other accounts, they are merely that—second-hand information, at best. <br /><br />I have formulated opinions on too many clinical ethics consultations that ultimately proved wholly in error upon meeting and interviewing stakeholders. It happened again this week. After hearing one or more first person narrative accounts of what’s going on, seeing their tears, feeling into their frustrations or fears, reading the documents they thrust at me in explanation, meeting their partner or parents or siblings or children—after being present with those whose ethics dilemma it is, my opinion of the ought or ought not nearly always is changed. <br /><br />Were we to have opportunity to sit at Ms. P’s bedside after C-section delivery, if we could cuddle her babies and listen empathically to their grandma’s distress and worries, how differently might this situation then appear? <br /><br />What we surely can do as ethics thinkers at a distance is to: list and ask the ethics questions this or any case provokes in us, tease out and name the moral conflicts that likely make this a dilemma, project possible scenarios of responsive action, anticipate potential consequences of this action versus that, consider wider societal implications of whatever is done in an individual case of this type. And we might acknowledge that even on these matters elucidated without firsthand experience of the particular situation, we are quite apt to be mistaken.<br /><br />On these claims of mine, I expect we three may agree, while arguing vociferously perhaps about what should be on our respective lists of relevant questions, conflicts, scenarios, consequences, and implications.<br /><br />Terry RTarrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08306328748282691070noreply@blogger.com