Teaching Normative and Applied Ethics: How, and to What End? Stephen Scher

"Two senior physicians who had read our first book, Rethinking Health Care Ethics (2018), noted that in their clinical work, they inescapably address many ethical problems, large and small, on the spot, in the course of providing patient care. They also observed, however, that the resident bioethicist cautioned, when presented with one of their typical problems, that it would take him days or even weeks to reach a proper solution."

"Summarizing our response in a brief blog entry is obviously not possible, but what I can do is provide an overview of the main themes-which, in the process, will also communicate how this book differs from standard accounts of bioethics. I will also try to raise some open-ended questions concerning the potential implications for how ethics, especially courses involving normative or applied ethics, is taught."

"First, the book draws on Rawls's distinction in A Theory of Justice between the formal ethical discourse of moral philosophers (or, by extension, bioethicists) and the informal ethical discourse used by everyone else. In the clinic, physicians and other health care clinicians use informal ethical discourse to understand and address ethical problems that arise either in their clinical work or in their life outside the clinic."

Rawls's distinction between formal philosophical discourse and informal everyday moral discourse is applied to clinical ethics. Clinicians use informal ethical discourse to resolve immediate, context-dependent ethical problems during patient care and in life outside the clinic. Informal ethical discourse develops from each clinician's life history, including childhood experiences, social interactions, and professional training. Informal discourse supports rapid, on-the-spot ethical judgments, while formal bioethical analysis often requires days or weeks. That contrast prompts questions about how normative and applied ethics should be taught and how formal frameworks can be reconciled with clinicians' practical moral reasoning.

Read at Apaonline