Abstract

Jennifer Bell applies Susan Sherwin's theory of relational autonomy as a lens to qualitative health research to study patient decision-making in cancer clinical trials. Interestingly, her broader goal is to enhance patient decision-making in the healthcare context1 rather than the research one. This goal relies on a silent assumption that knowledge gained in a research context is easily transferable to the healthcare context. It also leaves unexplored the promise—and peril—of the application of her work in a research context.Bell's goal to develop tools to enable, maintain, or support patient autonomy skills in...