title: Visual bioethics.
abstract: Although images are pervasive in public policy debates in bioethics, few who work in the field attend carefully to the way that images function rhetorically. If the use of images is discussed at all, it is usually to dismiss appeals to images as a form of manipulation. Yet it is possible to speak meaningfully of visual arguments. Examining the appeal to images of the embryo and fetus in debates about abortion and stem cell research, I suggest that bioethicists would be well served by attending much more carefully to how images function in public policy debates.
authors.affiliation: John Carroll University, 20700 North Park Boulevard, University Heights, OH 44118, USA. plauritzen@jcu.edu
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lauritzen
mesh_terms: D000028:Abortion, Induced / Q000941:ethics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D000329:Advertising / Q000941:ethics; D001296:Audiovisual Aids / Q000639:trends; D026688:Bioethical Issues; D001675:Bioethics / Q000639:trends; D002359:Cartoons as Topic / Q000941:ethics; D015925:Cryopreservation; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D008192:Deception; D033041:Embryo Research / Q000941:ethics; D053595:Embryonic Stem Cells; D006801:Humans; D008488:Medical Illustration; D028681:Moral Obligations; D009040:Motion Pictures / Q000941:ethics; D009769:Object Attachment; D028723:Personhood; D010565:Persuasive Communication; D010781:Photography; D011050:Policy Making; D011640:Public Policy; D012945:Social Values; D016216:Ultrasonography, Prenatal / Q000941:ethics; D014743:Videotape Recording