Social Paternalism in a Communitarian Context: Enhancing Individuals' Moral Deliberation Through a Communal “Moral Voice”.

The author comments on the article "The Curious Case of the De-ICD: Negotiating the dynamics of autonomy and paternalism in complex clinical relationships" by Daryl Pullman and Kathleen Hodgkinson which appeared in the August 2016 issue. The article provides the response of an ethics consultation service to a request for the removal of an implantable device. The commentator explains that more nuanced accounts of autonomy have emerged in the bioethics discourse and in clinical practice.