The ethical convenience of non-neutrality in medical encounters: argumentative instruments for healthcare providers

By proposing a case study analysis from the context of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART), we argue that non-neutrality may paradoxically have – if it is properly managed – a higher degree of ethical convenience (§3). In summary, we show the relevance for the context of health communication of recent issues discussed in cognitive pragmatics and linguistics (§ 2); having in mind the idea that patients’ autonomy and freedom is guaranteed by understanding within shared decision-making, we then introduce the argumentative theory of reasoning and we discuss the significant role of argumentative instruments within patient-provider interactions. Finally, we propose a case study analysis of a medical consultation within ART and show how an ethical management of non-neutrality requires an appropriate use of communicative instruments and, more specifically, of argumentative instruments (§3). Finally, we discuss some preliminary results and sketch further lines of research (§4).