Doctoral Dissertation Research: Professional Ethics: An Ethnographic Study of Clinical Bioethics In the U.S.A. and Canada

William Marsh Rice University, Houston TX

Investigators

Abstract

This dissertation research by an anthropology student will study how professional identity is established and negotiated by clinical bioethicists in medical settings in the US and Canada. Using methods of participant observation, structured and informal interviews, the student will study bioethicists at a teaching hospital in Houston Texas, members of the National Rural Bioethics Project in Missoula Montana, the Joint Centre for Bioethics at the University of Toronto, Canada, and in rural teaching hospitals in Regina and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. The student will test hypotheses dealing with differences in the roles of knowledge, skills, and character in credentialing professionals in the US and Canada; the different role of stakeholders and resource managers in the credentialing process in the two countries; the contextual and interpersonal nature of authority negotiation of these non-medical specialists in medical settings; and the multiple roles bioethicists will play in resolving problems of daily practice. In addition to contributing to the training of a young social scientist, this research will advance our understanding of how the ethical dimensions of medical care are worked out in real life, and how non-medical authorities gain legitimacy when they act as patient advocates in a medical setting.