Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Philosophical introduction: case analysis in clinical ethics
- 2 Families and genetic testing: the case of Jane and Phyllis
- 3 Family access to shared genetic information: an analysis of the narrative
- 4 A virtue-ethics approach
- 5 Interpretation and dialogue in hermeneutic ethics
- 6 ‘Power, corruption and lies’: ethics and power
- 7 Reading the genes
- 8 A utilitarian approach
- 9 A feminist care-ethics approach to genetics
- 10 A conversational approach to the ethics of genetic testing
- 11 Families and genetic testing: the case of Jane and Phyllis from a four-principles perspective
- 12 A phenomenological approach to bioethics
- 13 An empirical approach
- 14 Response to ethical dissections of the case
- 15 Philosophical reflections
- Index
- References
7 - Reading the genes
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Philosophical introduction: case analysis in clinical ethics
- 2 Families and genetic testing: the case of Jane and Phyllis
- 3 Family access to shared genetic information: an analysis of the narrative
- 4 A virtue-ethics approach
- 5 Interpretation and dialogue in hermeneutic ethics
- 6 ‘Power, corruption and lies’: ethics and power
- 7 Reading the genes
- 8 A utilitarian approach
- 9 A feminist care-ethics approach to genetics
- 10 A conversational approach to the ethics of genetic testing
- 11 Families and genetic testing: the case of Jane and Phyllis from a four-principles perspective
- 12 A phenomenological approach to bioethics
- 13 An empirical approach
- 14 Response to ethical dissections of the case
- 15 Philosophical reflections
- Index
- References
Summary
Lost in space: in place of an introduction
I cannot begin at the beginning. Yet children in primary school now learn that every text must have an appropriate beginning. A fairy story opens, comfortingly, ‘Once upon a time …’. What is missed and not taught is the corollary: the opening sentences and the way in which the writing develops from there (the texture) fashions the kind of text produced. So when I now say that I cannot articulate my philosophical approach at the start of this chapter, I am already shaping the material in a particular style.
I can appreciate why the editors have called for an introduction. They wish me to explain my method. They wish to assist you, Gentle Reader. But I cannot begin there because that is not where I am and I do not see the way ahead with such clarity, yet it must be because it was as ‘I would prefer not to’ work in this way that I was invited to contribute. This is because of my resistance (the significance of the word in this context should become clearer in the course of this chapter) to use the very model we have all been schooled in. Will I nevertheless satisfy the expectation that in this chapter my writing will exemplify a post-structuralist approach?
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Case Analysis in Clinical Ethics , pp. 95 - 114Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005