The Birth of Tragedy in Pediatrics: a Phronetic Conception of Bioethics

Accepted standards of parental decisional autonomy and child best interests do not address adequately the complex moral problems involved in the care of critically ill children. A growing body of moral discourse is calling for the recognition of `tragedy' in selected human problems. A tragic di...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Carnevale, Franco A. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Sage 2007
In: Nursing ethics
Year: 2007, Volume: 14, Issue: 5, Pages: 571-582
Further subjects:B Pediatrics
B Critical care
B Bioethics
B Phronesis
B Children
B Tragedy
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:Accepted standards of parental decisional autonomy and child best interests do not address adequately the complex moral problems involved in the care of critically ill children. A growing body of moral discourse is calling for the recognition of `tragedy' in selected human problems. A tragic dilemma is an irresolvable dilemma with forced terrible alternatives, where even the virtuous agent inescapably emerges with `dirty hands'. The shift in moral framework described here recognizes that the form of conduct called for by tragic dilemmas is the practice of phronesis. The phronetic agent has acquired a capacity to discern good agency in tragic circumstances. This discernment is practiced through the artful creation of moral narratives: stories that convey that which is morally meaningful in a particular situation; that is, stories that are `meaning making'. The phronetic agent addresses tragic dilemmas involving children as a narrator of contextualized temporal embodied human (counter)stories.
ISSN:1477-0989
Contains:Enthalten in: Nursing ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1177/0969733007080203