Posts by Marsha Fowler In the early 1980s, Andy and I mused on many things including moral uncertainty, moral dilemma, and moral distress. We would never have thought that moral distress was entry level, barely across the threshold. Perhaps we now need “moral anguish.” Moral anguish: when we know what is right and good, but … Continue reading Moral Anguish Demands Moral Action
Author: Marsha Fowler
Nursing Ethics is a Century Older than Bioethics
Marsha Fowler's Nursology.net postsNursing Ethics, 1880s to the Present: An Archaeology of Lost Wisdom and Identity The earliest nursing ethics literature began with modern nursing itself. It was a main ingredient, baked into the cake of nursing, and was not decorative frosting. It went on to become an extraordinary and extensive body of literature in … Continue reading Nursing Ethics is a Century Older than Bioethics
Bird Brains, Edge Group Effect, and Nursing Knowledge Drift
"The Hudsonian Godwit makes a trip from breeding grounds in arctic Alaska almost to the southernmost tip of South America—just under 10,000 miles!" - Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology When I was a child we called one another “birdbrain” when we had done something stupid or counterproductive. It was a harsh insult. But in more recent years a significant … Continue reading Bird Brains, Edge Group Effect, and Nursing Knowledge Drift
AI Ain’t Never Been a Nurse: On AI and the 2025 Revision of the Code of Ethics for Nurses
View all posts by Marsha FowlerBook “Nursing Ethics, 1880s to the Present: An Anthology of Lost Wisdom and Identity” A nurse friend and colleague recently contacted me to tell me of an interaction she had with a colleague of hers. My friend mentioned to her that she knew someone who had worked on the new … Continue reading AI Ain’t Never Been a Nurse: On AI and the 2025 Revision of the Code of Ethics for Nurses
🤬 and Banned Words: Advancing our Scholarship and Activism of Outrage – Part II
My beloved aunt, my mother’s sister, was a Southerner, what one might have called a “genteel woman” who was never harsh but could be stern. There would be no thought of using a curse word; Heaven forfend! When the men cursed she said it was “a mite tee-jus” to have to listen. Should any of … Continue reading 🤬 and Banned Words: Advancing our Scholarship and Activism of Outrage – Part II
Banned Words and a Scholarship and Activism of Outrage
Introduction In their recent article, “Federal Government’s Growing Banned Words List Is Chilling Act of Censorship” (https://pen.org/banned-words-list/), Pen America compiled a list of 250 words unacceptable to the Trump administration that soon became a list of 350 words. Not to be outdone, Reuters, Gizmodo, The Washington Post, Propublica, More Perfect Union, Science, 404 Media, Popular … Continue reading Banned Words and a Scholarship and Activism of Outrage
Woe to those who make unjust laws
Ethical Knowing in NursingBlogs by Marsha Fowler Isaiah 10.1 Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees,2 to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people,making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless.3 What will you do on the day of reckoning, when disaster comes from afar?To whom will you run for … Continue reading Woe to those who make unjust laws
A Firestorm for Justice
See Nursing Ethics, 1880s to the Present: An Archaeology of Lost Wisdom and Identity by Marsha D. M. Fowler I must begin with an admission that, having lost my home and my possessions to the Altadena wildfire, I have become entranced by fire in both its destructive and constructive power. Technically my home was not destroyed … Continue reading A Firestorm for Justice
Wind, Flame, Ash, and a Pink Polka-Dot Ribbon: Lessons from the Altadena Wildfire
Dr. Marsha Fowler is a member of the Nursology.net Advisory TeamAuthor: Nursing Ethics, 1880s to the Present Marsha Fowler Until recently I lived in the 140 year old town of Altadena, California. Altadena is nestled in the foothills of the transverse range of the San Gabriel Mountains, between the San Joaquin and Whittier Narrows fault-lines. … Continue reading Wind, Flame, Ash, and a Pink Polka-Dot Ribbon: Lessons from the Altadena Wildfire
Identity-grounded Ethics: Ethical methodology and analysis of racism (and other -isms) in Nursing
There is little in the way of an ethical analysis of racism in the bioethical literature. Nor is there anything on racism that incorporates identity-grounded ethics in a bioethical analysis. Even more damning is the fact that racism, sexism, and classism (land ownership) are embedded in US Constitution and bioethics has yet to come to … Continue reading Identity-grounded Ethics: Ethical methodology and analysis of racism (and other -isms) in Nursing
Cheap Forgiveness
Historically, bioethics began centuries ago as both a pastoral and theological enterprise within religious traditions. It was pastoral in the sense that clergy would address the questions of right and wrong, good and evil, in relation to questions of uncertainty among the faithful. It was a theological enterprise in the sense that the theologians would … Continue reading Cheap Forgiveness
A Snake in our Midst: The Constriction of Nursing Ethics by the Serpent Bioethics
It has been in our midst from the start, gliding through the thatched undergrowth of our history, now and again managing to coil itself around us, restricting our circulation, but never sufficient to stop the blood-flow to our heart. Or so some would think, though many would not notice. But indeed the snake of biomedical … Continue reading A Snake in our Midst: The Constriction of Nursing Ethics by the Serpent Bioethics
Morality Police and Steel Rape: Our Future from the 1800s
Contributor: Marsha Fowler, Ph.D., MDiv, MS, RN, FAAN The skirmishes and battles have changed, but the war has not. First wave feminists battled the constellation of the regulation of prostitutes, the control of venereal disease, and the toxic sexual double standard. Our battle today is the callous and obdurate slaughter of Roe v Wade, a … Continue reading Morality Police and Steel Rape: Our Future from the 1800s