Reasoning Backwards by Design: Commentary on "Moral Reasoning among HEC Members"

Ashley L. Stephens, Elizabeth Heitman

Research output: Contribution to journalComment/debatepeer-review

Abstract

Empirical assessment of the practice of clinical ethics is made difficult by the limited standardization of settings, structures, processes, roles, and training for ethics consultation, as well as by whether individual ethics consultants or hospital ethics committees (HECs) provide consultation. Efforts to study the relationship between theory and practice in the work of HECs likewise require the spelling out of assumptions and definition of key variables, based in knowledge of the core concepts of clinical ethics and logistics of clinical consultation. The survey of HEC members reported by Wasserman and colleagues illustrates the difficulty of such research and calls attention to need for studies of real-time, complex decision making to inform conclusions about how theory affects practice.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)118-120
Number of pages3
JournalThe Journal of clinical ethics
Volume26
Issue number2
StatePublished - Jun 1 2015

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Medicine

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Reasoning Backwards by Design: Commentary on "Moral Reasoning among HEC Members"'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this