Ann F. Cook,PhD, Helena Hoas, PhD
"Re-Framing the Questions: What do we really want to know about rural healthcare ethics? "
The American Journal of Bioethics, 2006, Vol 6(2)
In this commentary, the authors discuss the kinds of moral dilemmas that rural healthcare providers encounter in their daily work. When rural healthcare providers describe these dilemmas, they reference not major bioethics theories or concepts, but rather the social, political, and economic contexts in which these dilemmas unfold. The findings from the authors’ various empirical ethics studies underscore the need for an on-going dialogue about healthcare ethics and what it means for the provision of care in rural settings. If we fail to dialogue there is a danger that models, definitions, approaches, and solutions will be crafted by the bioethics enterprise, rather than emerge from within the rural world.