D'où viennent les interrogations morales ? Les usages rhétoriques des innovations par les pédiatres réanimateurs français

Abstract

Where do moral issues corne from? Rhetorical use of innovations by intensive care pediatricians Intensive care pediatricians must routinely make decisions about ending or continuing intensive care procedures on patients — difficult decisions that raise moral issues. Although there is little discussion of such moral dilemmas in their daily interactions in the hospital, pediatricians point them out clearly in their publications. They even trace such decisions to their presumed origins through accounts connecting the emergence of moral issues with biomedical innovations. But the moral role attributed to biomedical innovations is not self-evident. This paper examines the different ways in which the moral dimensions of innovations are utilized by intensive care pediatricians when they write. It illuminates how, when challenged by other hospital staff or by larger scale debates, especially those pertaining to bioethics, they use such discourses to legitimize their practice.