Priorities far beyond generating morbidity or mortality data are needed to improve patients’ experiences, innovate metrics, and advance surgical palliation as a field.
AMA J Ethics. 2021;23(10):E806-810. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2021.806.
We consult our doctors for expert medical advice, not phenomenological analysis, but perhaps a wide gulf ought not separate empirical science and research from phenomenological reflection and analysis on illness.
Narrative ethics derives its ethical force from continually comparing and critiquing new narratives against existing narratives that guide the way we live.
When ventilator support is being withdrawn from a dying child, responsive titration of sedative medications by the ICU team can relieve suffering without anesthetizing the child completely or hastening death.