Respondent group Units of meaning (What is said) Units of significance (What is speaked about) Themes Molecular biologist employed at the university (MBU, Q1)5 “… you must inform them of their options and then respect their decision.” Inform patients and respect their decision Respect for autonomy / Informed consent • Information • Respect decision Molecular biologist employed in a private biopharmaceutical company (MBP, Q2)6 “… if you were a seriously ill or terminally ill patient, I think I would accept just about any treatment, because you would accept the risk involved.” Very sick patients are constrained by the circumstances to a certain choice Respect for autonomy / Informed consent • External constraints • Vulnerability • Fragility Oncology physician working in the clinic (OPC, Q3)7 “… try to determine what is wrong with the patient, what are our options, what are the patient’s wishes, ideas, and then we have to reach some kind of mutual understanding, frame of reference, and take it from there … and how can we deal with this in respect of that.” Medical prognosis evaluation Risk-benefit analysis Patient’s wishes and ideas Mutual understanding Respect Medical prognosis evaluation • Risk-benefit analysis   Respect for autonomy / Informed consent • Patient’s wishes and ideas • Mutual understanding • Respect Oncology physician working in the clinic (OPC, Q4) “… patients are very different and you must adjust to their level as best you can and try to find out what kind of language to speak and to sense if they have understood what you have told them, and maybe repeat it…” Positive obligation to adjust to the level of the patient Information Understanding Respect for autonomy / Informed consent • Disclosing information • Probing for understanding 5(MBU, Q1): Molecular biologist employed at a public university, quotation 1. 6(MBP, Q2): Molecular biologist employed in a private biopharmaceutical company, quotation 2. 7(OPC, Q3): Oncology physician working in the clinic at a public hospital, quotation 3.

Table 4: Example of structural analysis - the movement from what is said to what is speaked about, first by describing units of meaning (what is said) and next by formulating units of significance (what is talked about) and themes. This specific example of structural analysis is taken from the Danish empirical study for which the method was developed [7].

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