Nora Machado des Johansson, born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1953. Ph.D. from Uppsala University. Associate Professor at the Sociology Department at Göteborg University.
Fellow (1 September 2004 – 30 June 2005)
TOWARDS A (NEO) INSTITUTIONAL BIOETHICS
My research plan for 2004/05 focused on the development of a social science based ethical analysis as an alternative to the philosophically informed ethical analysis usually applied to health care policy and health care settings. During this year at NIAS, I have elaborated and developed the concept of “institutionally normative framework” to explain assessments of normative risks in different organisations and the ethical frames or boundaries for the ethically acceptable and integrated ethical, micro-political and formal dimensions into a consistent theory of institutional decision-making.
I went on to apply the research on institutional and contextualised ethics to end-of-life decision making. The analysis focused on the gap between largely discursive and de-contextualised moral debates about assisted suicide, passive or active euthanasia, etc. and the reality of practice and procedures in modern health care. The research resulted in several presentations, papers and two books in preparation.