Imagining bioethics with Emily Dickinson: a poetic exploration of the art of dying.

This paper introduces an approach to ethical inquiry inspired by Emily Dickinson's investigative poetic approach and framed by the concept of sideshadowing. The purpose of this approach is to elucidate the human experience of dying and direct our ethical attention accordingly. Sideshadowing is a concept that opens a middle realm of possibilities. Engaging with possibility through sideshadowing can guide bioethics' self-analysis of what holds and deserves attention. The bioethical response to dying is primarily focused on medical decisions and the physicality of death, which does not help us understand death as much as we think it does, nor does it meet the needs of dying people. Dickinson's poetic approach adds an investigative layer to human perception that may question what we pay attention to and add new dimensions to understandings of human reality. Dickinson shows what is possible by engaging with dying as an art.