ABSTRACT
I found myself watching the families. I was a college teacher trained as a philosopher, and now I was charged with the task of trying to turn myself into a bioethicist. I was unfamiliar with hospitals and uncomfortable in them. The medical jargon baffled me. I had no clin ical eye to tell how the patient was doing. The new and largely unde fined role added to my discomfort. I knew that I was supposed to help doctors with the ethical aspects of their decisions, but I couldn't even understand their conversations about those decisions.
