Principlism or narrative ethics: must we choose between them?

This paper addresses a current debate in the bioethics community between principlists, who consider that principles are at the heart of moral life, and narrativists, who see communication at its core. Using a case study entitled “The forgetful mourner” to introduce the tensions between each of these...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Medical humanities 2003-12, Vol.29 (2), p.65-71
Main Author: McCarthy, J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aged
Alzheimer Disease
Alzheimer's disease
Analysis
Bioethical Issues
Bioethics
Decision making
Ethical Analysis
ethical decision making
Ethical Theory
Ethics
Grief
Humans
medical ethics
medical humanities
Morality
Narration
narrative ethics
Nursing homes
Principle-Based Ethics
Principles
principlism
Ricoeur, Paul
Truth Disclosure - ethics
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Summary:This paper addresses a current debate in the bioethics community between principlists, who consider that principles are at the heart of moral life, and narrativists, who see communication at its core. Using a case study entitled “The forgetful mourner” to introduce the tensions between each of these positions, I go on to explain the central tenets of both principlism and narrative ethics. Rather than focus on their respective weaknesses, which many theorists do, I emphasise instead, the contribution that each approach can make to understanding moral life and the process of ethical decision making in health care situations. My ultimate aim is to identify the, sometimes overlapping, skills that both principlism and narrative ethics require on the part of health professionals who deploy them. I conclude that a good principlist has narrativist tendencies and a good narrativist is inclined toward principlism.
ISSN:1468-215X
1473-4265
DOI:10.1136/mh.29.2.65