Highlights from the joint Center for Bioethics and Department of Surgery talk: ‘Decisions,’ ‘Options,’ ‘Values,’ ‘Preferences’: Examining the Language of Bioethics

In this talk, Justin Clapp examines how familiar bioethics language—such as framing medical “decisions” around patients’ “values” and “preferences”—actually functions in real clinical settings, including surgical clinics and intensive care units. Drawing on ethnographic research, he illustrates how these concepts are often taken up in ways that diverge significantly from their theoretical intentions, producing effects … Read more