Commentary 2: Empirical Interviews and Moral Engagement—Commentary on “Interviewers as Intruders? Ethical Explorations of Joint Family Interviews”

Abstract

This paper discusses a case vignette that captures an ethically challenging situation in qualitative research. The study was about families who had experienced a life-saving bone marrow transplantation between siblings, who were children at the time of transplantation. A difficult situation emerged during a joint family interview that took place a few years after the transplantation. Parents, donor and the recipient were present, both still children. The difficulties included a confrontation of the 10-year old donor child with accusations and pejorative statements from the other family members and his sidelining from the conversation. The interviewers have been acutely aware that their presence in this situation in this moment was an intrusion into family dynamics. The paper argues, on the basis of the vignette, that professional norms of qualitative research need to be reconsidered. Specifically, it is argued that interviewers are obligated to take an engaged moral stance, by taking a position in an exchange of moral arguments.