Gynaecologists and geneticists as storytellers - Medical Technologies and the Life World - page 72

embryo. A genetic analysis is performed on these cells, which allows transfer
and implantation of embryos without the specifi c genetic disease. In some
cases, this analysis can be performed by means of fl uorescent marking of
chromosomes or parts of chromosomes (fl uorescent in situ hybridisation).
Fluorescent in situ hybridisation implies that biomedical substances are used
in order to make certain segments of chromosomes shine when exposed to
ultra-violet light. It can be used to indicate sex as well as certain structural
and numerical changes in the chromosomes. In the case of single-gene disease
(and as it is not possible to detect a mutation in the DNA from a single
cell without amplifying the relevant DNA sequence) all single-gene genetic
analyses rely on single-cell polymerase chain reaction for such amplifi cation
(Braude et al . 2002). Polymerase chain reaction is used to amplify DNA to
indicate single-gene diseases either when a certain DNA sequence mutation
is identifi ed or in linkage analysis when such a mutation is statistically linked
to some other identifi able DNA sequence.
There are diffi culties with all the alternatives and the risk of error due to
the human factor is always present. Consequently, there are recommendations
that PGD, if resulting in a pregnancy, shall be combined with prenatal diagnosis
(SMER 2004:6) or, at least, that such combination shall be discussed with
the woman and man concerned (Thornhill et al . 2005).
Narrative analysis
I use narrative analysis as a method for exploring ethically relevant
phenomena that interviewees constructed and discussed in the form of
narratives. I understand a narrative as a story of a sequence of events, which
is signifi cant for the person telling it. It has a plot and an internal logic that
makes sense to the narrator (Denzin 1989). I consider the narrative to be
something more than structural features of a text. A narrative is embedded
in human action and the social context in which it is related as well as the
narrator's reason for telling it are important elements in the understanding
of it (Herrenstein-Smith 1981). I also concur with narrative researchers who
hold that we, by using the narrative form, assign meaning to events, place
events within a certain order and invest them with signifi cance - and often
with a moral signifi cance (Whyte 1981; Polyani 1989).
A number of narrative styles and analytic distinctions applied to these
styles are available and I have combined elements of different narrative
analyses. I have identifi ed orientations , which answers the questions of 'Who?
What? When? Where?', complications which answers the question of 'then
what happened?' and evaluations which answers the question 'so what?'
(Labov 1972; Cortazzi 1993). In this sense, I draw on the work of those who
elaborate narrative analysis with a concern for formal structural properties
in relation to their function, but I do so with the purpose of exploring the
narratives' moral or point (Polanyi 1989). Stories with a moral or a point
have a long tradition and they are told with a certain purpose; a number