Empirical research in clinical ethics: The ‘committed researcher’ approach

After the ‘empirical turn’ in bioethics, few specific approaches have been developed for doing clinical ethics research in close connection with clinical decision‐making on a daily basis. In this paper we describe the ‘committed researcher’ approach to research in clinical ethics that we have develo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Bioethics 2020-09, Vol.34 (7), p.719-726
Main Authors: Fournier, Véronique, Bretonnière, Sandrine, Spranzi, Marta
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bioethics
Clinical decision making
Clinical research
commitment
committed researcher
Decision making
deliberative engagement
embedded researcher
empirical bioethics
Ethics
Health services
Life Sciences
Medical ethics
Multidisciplinary teams
research in clinical ethics
Researchers
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Summary:After the ‘empirical turn’ in bioethics, few specific approaches have been developed for doing clinical ethics research in close connection with clinical decision‐making on a daily basis. In this paper we describe the ‘committed researcher’ approach to research in clinical ethics that we have developed over the years. After comparing it to two similar research methodological approaches, the ‘embedded researcher’ and ‘deliberative engagement’, we highlight its main features: it is patient‐oriented, it is implemented by collegial and multidisciplinary teams, it uses an ethical grid to build the interview guide, and it is geared towards bringing the results to bear on the public debate surrounding the issue at stake. Finally, we position our methodological approach with respect to the ‘is vs. ought’ distinction. We argue that our ‘commitment researcher’ approach to clinical ethics research takes concerned people’s life‐building values as the main data, and compares them to the larger normative framework underlying the medical practice at stake.
ISSN:0269-9702
1467-8519
DOI:10.1111/bioe.12742