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ORIGINAL ARTICLE |
Biomedical Ethics Unit and Department of Social Studies of Medice, McGill University, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Correspondence to:
Dr L Turner, 3647 Peel Street, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 1X1;
leigh.turner{at}mcgill.ca
Revised version received 26 November 2001
Accepted for publication 23 January 2002
| ABSTRACT |
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Keywords: Medical facilities; moral worlds; moral reflection on architecture; ethos of place; quandary ethics; geriatric care
Over the last forty years, scholars in bioethics and the medical humanities have made little effort to link moral reflection to architecture, the design of rooms and buildings, and the creation of humane social habitats. The ethos of place is not a recognisable area of study in current bioethics research. Unfortunately, for many people, the work of ethicists is identified with rule making and the resolution of moral "quandaries".1 The focus upon rules and quandaries fails to attend sufficiently to the prosaic character of moral experience in particular social settings. Furthermore, the emphasis upon rules and quandaries means that little attention is given to the contribution of institutional design, the practical arrangement of rooms and hallways, gardens, works of art, and everyday human interaction to the creation of meaningful, decent, inhabitable places. Scholarship in bioethics is more oriented towards the articulation of principles and rules and the resolution of moral quandaries than reflection upon what constitutes meaningful "local moral worlds".2 Ethics consultations, for example, commonly arise in the context of addressing difficult, contentious end-of-life care scenarios. Regarding bioethics as a rule-making, problem solving discipline that can bring order to messy situations at the boundaries of life and death neglects larger questions about what it means to inhabit a particular institution as a patient, family member, or staff member.
| BIOETHICS AS RULE MAKING |
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| BIOETHICS AS PROBLEM SOLVING |
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Ethicists can usually be persuaded to lecture on physician assisted suicide to a group of geriatricians; it is much more difficult to persuade bioethicists to discuss what practical steps might be taken to improve the quality of food, musical offerings, recreational activities or institutional arrangements in particular health care settings. Somehow, these matters are regarded as health care delivery issues that fall outside the realm of serious moral reflection. These practical considerationsthe kinds of concerns that in my experience tend to play an important role in determining whether hospitals and geriatric care facilities are humane, decent placescommonly fall outside the perceptual field of "the moral point of view".
Rather than thinking of moral reasoning in the health care context purely as a matter of making rules or resolving quandaries, I propose that much greater attention be given to the practical, mundane consideration of the many incremental steps that can be taken to make hospitals, geriatric facilities and other health care institutions more human, decent, aesthetically and spiritually satisfying moral habitats. Much more attention needs to be given to the many quotidian aspects of life that interweave to create the "ethos" of particular settings.4
| A CAUTIONARY NOTE |
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| PERSONAL REFLECTIONS |
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Part of my work as a clinical ethicist involved providing ethics consultations, contributing to the development of organisational policies, and attending meetings of the clinical ethics committee and research ethics board. With such activities constituting an important part of my work, I was in a position to appreciate the limited but useful contribution of quandary ethics and ethics as a rule-making exercise. Over time, though, it occurred to me that much of what I found most decent, admirable, and ethical about the institution had rather little to do with addressing marginal cases, developing new, improved informed consent forms, or further refining policies concerning cardiopulmonary resuscitation. These tasks had their place, but the more time I spent at Baycrest, the more I came to realise that it was the mundane, background features of the place that mattered to the lives of its clients and staff. Perhaps when thinking about long term care and geriatric facilities, it makes sense to begin thinking about the ethos of place instead of immediately associating geriatric care with "ethical issues in end-of-life care" or some other conventional rubric.
Focusing upon the ethos of place draws attention to the way in which architectural design features of buildings, the interior design of hallways, common areas, bedrooms, and recreation areas, places for plants, pet programmes, arts and crafts programmes, music, and art contribute to the everyday moral life of a particular place. When attention is directed toward the ethos of Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care, it makes little sense to think of moral reflection as a distinctive intellectual activity performed during ethics rounds and ethics consultations. Rather, creating a moral place can be recognised as a matter of fostering specific practices and affording the opportunity for particular human experiences in specific habitats. Let me provide a few concrete examples that emerged from my time at Baycrest to give a better sense of the way in which the ethos of place matters.
| BAYCREST CENTRE FOR GERIATRIC CARE |
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A careful economic cost benefit analysis might raise tough "bottom line" questions about the "added value" or "opportunity costs" of these portraits, pictures and murals. Senior administrators cannot be referred to well designed studies confirming that aesthetically pleasing, visually rich, colourful environments lead to better "health status" over utilitarian, functionalist surroundings. There are always new and expensive pieces of medical equipment that can be purchased. What is all of this artwork doing in a geriatric facility? It would be very easy to develop an argument explaining why the artwork should be carted away and replaced with a larger concentrated care unit or new computers. And yet, Baycrest would be a different place if the artwork was removed from the halls and walls and auctioned to purchase new equipment. I suspect that what would begin to disappear from the place is whatever qualities that make Baycrest less a repository for ageing bodies, and more a habitat for humans.5 Of course, it would be saccharine of me to attempt overly to romanticise the place. There are sad, tragic dimensions to the many forms of suffering found in geriatric facilities. Still, in so far as geriatric facilities are not just places to grow old and die but places to live, it makes sense to attend to those morally, aesthetically, and spiritually significant features of settings. For many people at Baycrest, I suspect that the artwork plays a small but meaningful part in contributing to the rich moral fabric of the place.
While I found the artwork particularly noteworthy, others might find themselves drawn to the bright fish in the aquarium that is built into one of the escalators. Those with musical inclinations would notice the presence of the guest singers, the visiting piano player, and the festive musical performances that regularly occur. These latter events commonly take place in a large meeting place near the café, on the first floor of the main building. Bird lovers will find themselves drawn to the chattering parrots in the atrium of the new hospital building at Baycrest.
In addition to the artwork and the music, a colourful arts and crafts room provides an opportunity for Baycrest inhabitants to participate in pottery making, painting, drawing, and other activities. Instead of simply sitting in hallways or in their rooms, many of the people who live at Baycrest can visit the crafts room to talk with one another, use their hands and minds, and work with brushes, paint, and clay.
While the artwork lends colour and character to the buildings, music brings the place to life with clapping and singing, and the arts and crafts room fosters creation and engagement, there are other ways in which Baycrest is made habitable. Many individuals who live at Baycrest adorn their rooms with eighty years' worth of pictures of family members and friends. Religious holidays and special events bring an air of festivity to the place. Volunteers and staff members raise banners and streamers for these special events, and posters quickly dot the walls. "Aquasize" classes, meals, storytelling sessions, synagogue services, and other activities provide opportunities for Baycrest inhabitants to participate in everyday human activities. This bustle of social interaction does not happen of its own accord. The posters, banners, and book displays do not automatically appear. They require volunteers, organisers, planners, community supporters, and staff members. Family members, health care administrators, social workers, physicians, nurses, physical therapists, and occupational therapists engage in dozens of regular activities that weave together to make Baycrest a particular kind of place.
In addition to the attention given to everyday social activities and the adornment of living spaces, there is a great deal of practical reflection on how particular settings should be designed. For example, a new residential facility was recently completed at Baycrest. While architecture and interior design are rarely linked to "ethics", the building of human habitats is a thoroughly moral enterprise. Particular human experiences can be fostered or undermined by building particular places.6 Create no common places and meeting spots, and the institution risks promoting loneliness and isolation. Create too many public areas, remove the doors and walls that serve to demarcate "public" from "private" spaces, and the building's design could undermine the possibility for personal moments, solitary reflection, and a sense of privacy. Allow too many personal items in each personal living space, and the safety of the individuals who live in the room could be compromised in an emergency. Allow too few personal items in each room, and individuals risk losing the pictures, furniture, and other personal items that serve as reminders of identity and connectedness.
The design of eating spaces, bedrooms, hallways, washrooms, and meeting areas does not determine the ongoing flux of everyday life, but it can play a role in fostering environments for particular kinds of experiences. In short, if attention is given to the ethos of place, consideration needs to be given to what makes particular places warm, comforting and inhabitable, or cold, impersonal, alienating, and unbearable.7 Much greater consideration needs to be given to the background features and everyday social routines of particular institutions. It is this tacit, everyday character to moral life that makes for better or worse human places of habitation.
Of course, the ethos of a place is not just a product of architectural design, interior design, the provision of gardens and paintings, and the variety and quality of the food. The ethos of a place is also connected to the kind of people who inhabit a particular setting. Staff members are not as interchangeable as some health care executives might think. Doctors, nurses, music therapists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, and neighbourhood volunteers are not just replaceable "cogs" in "health maintenance organisations".
| THE CHARACTER OF PEOPLE AND PLACES |
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Hiring decisions, then, are profoundly moral acts because the choice of who is permitted to participate in the everyday practical activities of a setting plays an important role in determining the unfolding ethos of the place. The ethos of a place is closely connected to the characteristics of the many different people who inhabit a particular setting. Most of us would much rather inhabit a health care facility with compassionate, sensible caregivers but without a documented "mission statement" or code of conduct, than we would a hospital or geriatric centre with an elaborate code of ethics and indifferent, uncaring staff members. Specific people filling defined social roles play integral parts in determining whether a particular place has a more or less caring, compassionate, and trustworthy atmosphere.
| DESIGNING PLACES |
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I want to emphasise here that I am not attempting to make the case that architectural firms now need ethicists, or that a bioethics consultation is needed when choosing what plants to grow in the garden of a geriatric facility. Rather, I am suggesting that the way in which places are designed, built, and sustained over time has an important effect upon the moral, aesthetic, and spiritual lives of the inhabitants of these settings. How habitats are built and inhabited has a profound effect upon the kinds of moral experiences that occur in these settings. Whereas bioethicists often focus upon particular "cases", the kinds of moral issues these cases raise can often be traced to the way in which places are made inhabitable. To give just one practical example, think of a situation where an elderly woman requests that a geriatrician assist in her suicide. Now, imagine that the woman asks the question in a setting where she lies alone in a spartan, antiseptic smelling room with no pictures or other personal items on the walls or her table. There is no garden, arts and crafts room, music room, or reading lounge in the building, so she spends her days either lying in bed or sitting alone in her wheelchair in the hallway outside her room. There are no opportunities to leave the geriatric setting for brief excursions, and life unfolds entirely in this one setting. The woman, because of her declining health, moves through three different units in three months. She does not know the members of the health care team, and she does not recognise any of the other individuals on the floor where she lives. Whatever we might think in general terms about the subject of physician assisted suicide, how we make sense of her particular request is dependent, at least to some degree, on what we think of the kind of social world she inhabits. The ethos of a place can play an important role in creating a sense of warmth, security, trust and comfort, or promoting experiences of loneliness, isolation, and despair. The ethos of place matters.
| CONCLUSION: FROM RULES AND QUANDARIES TO THE ETHOS OF PLACE |
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We need to be far more attentive to the kinds of architecture, interior designs, artefacts, and social activities that make for better or worse places. Moral reflection needs to be less oriented toward principles and rules, and more attuned to exploring the character of prosaic settings where mores are embedded in particular practices and ambient settings. Moral reflection is not just about ideas and concepts that chiefly exist at some cognitive, intellectual level. Morality is also about the ebb and flow of human experiences in particular places. Architectural designs, the construction of private places and public spaces, the daily unfolding of social practices, paintings, gardens, and reading rooms have embedded in them particular understandings of how people should live their lives. The shape, texture, and character of settings have a great deal to do with the kinds of experiences that occur within local moral worlds.
Of course, caution is needed when making generalisations about what constitutes "good" habitat design or "caring" social practices. What is sensible for one place and community might be unsuitable in another setting. There is an irreducibly local character to such discussions, just as good architectural designs take into account features of the local landscape and the particular needs of a future building's inhabitants.11 Still, taking the variability of places, practices, and the distinct needs of particular communities into account, there is room for more reflective discussions about the many different steps that can be taken to design, build, and preserve meaningful, distinctive, sensible human habitats. Perhaps it is time, then, to better attend to the ethos of place, and to recognise that moral reflection requires much more than devising clever rules or ingeniously resolving complex moral quandaries. Attending to the ethos of place means learning to appreciate the way gatherings for meals, recurrent activities, social events, music, paintings, rooms, and gardens flow together to constitute meaningful forms of habitation within particular human dwelling places.
| ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS |
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| REFERENCES AND NOTES |
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This article has been cited by other articles:
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A. Gallagher Dignity and Respect for Dignity - Two Key Health Professional Values: implications for nursing Practice Nursing Ethics, November 1, 2004; 11(6): 587 - 599. [Abstract] [PDF] |
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H M Evans and D A Greaves Looking for emerging themes in medical humanities--some invitations to our readers Med. Humanit., June 1, 2003; 29(1): 1 - 3. [Full Text] [PDF] |
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