title: Clinical ethics as medical hermeneutics.
abstract: There are several branches of ethics. Clinical ethics, the one closest to medical decisionmaking, can be seen as a branch of medicine itself. In this view, clinical ethics is a unitary hermeneutics. Its rule is a guideline for unifying other theories of ethics in conjunction with the clinical context. Put another way, clinical ethics interprets the clinical situation in light of a balance of other values that, while guiding the decisionmaking process, also contributes to the very weighting of those values. The case itself originates ideas, not only about which value ought to predominate in its resolution, but also provides the origin of clinical rules that can be used in other cases. These are interpretive rules. Some examples of these rules are presented as well.
authors.affiliation: Medical Humanities Program, Loyola University Chicago, Maywood, IL 60153.
authors.forename: D C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Thomasma
mesh_terms: D026686:Beneficence; D026688:Bioethical Issues; D032764:Casuistry; D015510:Clinical Medicine; D003657:Decision Making; D026689:Ethical Analysis; D028663:Ethical Theory; D026690:Ethics, Clinical; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008128:Logic; D016743:Mental Competency; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010344:Patient Advocacy; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D028662:Principle-Based Ethics; D012945:Social Values; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D028761:Withholding Treatment