Prognostication and Bioethics

Social scientific critique of the field of bioethics can occur on at least two levels. The first involves the use of social-science theory to destabilize some of the assumptions underlying bioethics-for example, by arguing that ethics are socially contingent or culturally relative. The second involves the use of empirical social-science methods and findings to show how bioethical concerns play out in real situations or how ethical decisions are shaped by real behaviors and beliefs-a sort of "thick description" of bioethical decision making.' Using conceptual and empirical work on the problem of prognostication in medicine, and drawing on a multi-year research project of mine on this topic, I intend to do the latter here. (Fall 1999)