Ethical boundary-work in the infertility clinic

Area of Science:

• Reproductive medicine
• Bioethics
• Sociology of professions

Background:

• Infertility practice and reproductive technologies are often perceived as ethically contentious.
• Clinicians navigate complex moral landscapes in their daily work.
• Understanding how ethics are managed in practice is crucial for addressing debates.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore how infertility clinicians construct the role of the ethical in their everyday practice.
• To develop a theory of 'settled' and 'controversial' morality using ethical boundary-work.
• To illuminate how clinicians manage ethical issues and re-appropriate their practice.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative study involving infertility clinicians.
• Analysis of how clinicians construct the 'ethical' in practice.
• Application of ethical boundary-work concept.

Main Results:

• Clinicians engage in 'ethical boundary-work' to distinguish between 'settled' and 'controversial' morality.
• A 'no-ethics' space, representing settled morality, is created to manage the ethical.
• This practice allows clinicians to re-appropriate their work from external influences.

Conclusions:

• Understanding clinicians' everyday ethical concerns provides practical insights.
• Highlighting 'settled morality' can challenge external perspectives on clinic ethics.
• This approach can inform ethical thinking in infertility practice and broader debates.