ABSTRACT
Does the category of “setting” even have any particular meaning for the bioethics case? Mieke Bal points out that there is always a location for events in a narrative, and if one is not supplied by the narrator, the reader will create it for the story. She suggests that one can mark the location in each story and then “investigate whether a connection exists between the kind of events, the identity of the actors, and the location” (43). Genres have long been defined in terms of their sense of place. For instance, contrast two classic genres: the Western's single-street towns (which are dwarfed by the open landscape) and the future dystopia's decayed city (from which one cannot escape). The sense of space conveyed in these genres in turn determines the kind of action that can take place within them. The genre of the ethics case seems to be one that has more in common with those genres tied to the urban environment than those set in the rural world. In the idealized world of the country general practitioner, there was no need for academic philosophers to assist with issues of confidentiality, while the urban physician needs the help of other specialists in a world dominated by, and in some manner made through, specialists.
