Narrative, Complexity, and Context

Abstract

This chapter discusses the value of the autonomy of patients and research subjects in the data-gathering process. This comprises one of the principle tenets of bioethics, which argues for informed consent during experimental procedures, as well as mutual respect between the researched and the researcher. This autonomy also has epistemological value, in that the patient or subject has the freedom to articulate their perspectives and have them taken as intelligible by others, in a communal process of responsible knowing and listening.