Evidence map›Paper›PMID 27334528›Full record

ArticleJournal of bioethical inquiry2016

Relative Values: Perspectives on a Neuroimaging Technology From Above and Within the Ethical Landscape.

Gabrielle Samuel, Alan Cribb, John Owens, Clare Williams

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of bioethical inquiry, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Austerity and Professionalism: Being a Good Healthcare Professional in Bad Conditions.Health care analysis : HCA : journal of health philosophy and policy · 2019
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Gabrielle SamuelBrighton and Sussex Medical School, Falmer, East Sussex, UK. G.Samuel@bsms.ac.uk.
Alan CribbDepartment of Education and Professional Studies, King's College London, London, UK.
John OwensDepartment of Education and Professional Studies, King's College London, London, UK.
Clare WilliamsCollege of Business, Arts and Social Sciences, Brunel University London, Uxbridge, UK.

Funding

Wellcome Trust 086034
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

In this paper we contribute to "sociology in bioethics" and help clarify the range of ways sociological work can contribute to ethics scholarship. We do this using a case study of an innovative neurotechnology, functional magnetic resonance imaging, and its use to attempt to diagnose and communicate with severely brain-injured patients. We compare empirical data from interviews with relatives of patients who have a severe brain injury with perspectives from mainstream bioethics scholars. We use the notion of an "ethical landscape" as an analogy for the different ethical positions subjects can take-whereby a person's position relative to the landscape makes a difference to the way they experience and interact with it. We show that, in comparison to studying abstract ethics "from above" the ethical landscape, which involves universal generalizations and global judgements, studying ethics empirically "from the ground," within the ethical landscape foregrounds a more plural and differentiated picture. We argue it is important not to treat empirical ethics as secondary to abstract ethics, to treat on-the-ground perspectives as useful only insofar as they can inform ethics from above. Rather, empirical perspectives can illuminate the plural vantage points in ethical judgments, highlight the "lived" nature of ethical reasoning, and point to all ethical vantage points as being significant. This is of epistemic importance to normative ethics, since researchers who pay attention to the various positions in and trajectories through the ethical landscape are unlikely to think about ethics in terms of abstract agency-as can happen with top-down ethics-or to elide agency with the agency of policymakers. Moreover, empirical perspectives may have transformative implications for people on the ground, especially where focus on the potential harms and benefits they face brings their experiences and interests to the forefront of ethical and policy discussion.

Indexed as

BioethicsEthical AnalysisEthics, MedicalEthics, ResearchBrainBrain InjuriesCommunicationEthicistsFamilyFunctional NeuroimagingHealth PolicyHumansJudgmentTechnologyEmpirical bioethicsEthicsfMRIQualitative researchVegetative state

Identifiers

PMID27334528
PMCPMC5021745

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.