Abstract
Analogously to Kuhn’s and Hanson’s understanding of observation as theory-impregnated, we try to test the hypothesis that observation and interpretation might also be value-impregnated. We use a written examination task for medical students who were asked to read and interpret a text where the authors provide arguments pro et contra euthanasia. Afterwards the students were asked to provide their own reflected opinion on the issue. We found that medical students who were against and indecisive provided interpretations of the text which accorded with their own reflected opinions (P = 0.02), indicating that their interpretations were influenced by their own values. When including those who were pro euthanasia, the association was no longer significant. Although the present investigation was a small pilot-study, we obtained partial support for our hypothesis and have adjusted it to read as follows: observations and interpretations might be value-impregnated for respondents who have rather strong value-based attitudes. We think the adjusted hypothesis deserves to be further examined.
References
Helgesson, G., A. Lindblad, H. Thulesius, and N. Lynöe. 2009. Reasoning about physician-assisted suicide: analysis of comments by physicians and the Swedish general public. Clinical Ethics 4: 19–25.
Johansson, I., and N. Lynöe. 2008. Medicine & philosophy: A twenty-first century introduction. Frankfurt: Ontos Verlag.
Juth, N., and N. Lynöe. 2010. Do strong values influence estimations of future events? Journal of Medical Ethics 36(4): 255–256.
Skröder, R., and S. Hultkvist. 2009. Eutanasi och läkarassisterat självmord som ersättning för god lindrande vård? In Swedish (Should good palliative care be replaced by Euthanasia and physician assisted suicide?). Läkartidningen 106: 129.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank two anonymous reviewers from Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy for their very helpful comments.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Juth, N., Nilsonne, Å. & Lynöe, N. Are interpretations of other people’s arguments value-impregnated? A pilot study among medical students. Med Health Care and Philos 16, 601–603 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-011-9375-3
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-011-9375-3