"Stuck in the middle with you": the ethics and process of qualitative research with two people in an intimate relationship

In this article, the authors discuss their experiences of two separate research projects involving interviews with both partners in care relationships that pushed the ethics of research methods along unfamiliar routes. The desire to understand the relationship from both sides was seen to outweigh the perils of accessing both stories but only when the ethical and procedural elements had been sufficiently worked through. It is those ethical and procedural elements that they share in this article, which is offered as a provocative nudge toward a continued critical appraisal of ethical standards within qualitative research and begins with the authors' reflection on their processes for such research through the examination of a fictionalized vignette.