Vulnerability And Care

Abstract: The themes of this book, caring and vulnerability, are discussed in four articles. The house and the song, the weeping and the shame is about how space and architecture can preserve human dignity. Vulnerability and detours introduces and discusses aspects of the Danish philosopher Knud Ejler Løgstrup's phenomenological and philosophical thinking in a clinical nursing context. The last two articles, Seeing with the heart's eye and Philosophy of life and evidence in health care, go further in discussing nursing and phenomenology, using the story of the Good Samaritan as an example. This story has become a model for several health care professions, as it problematises the different ways of seeing a person. The fourth article addresses the narratives of the French philosopher Paul Ricoeur and discusses the concept of evidence both medically and philosophically in a practical nursing context

Organized into seven units - concepts, nursing theories, research, practice, programs, teaching-learning and policy - this text offers a broad focus on vulnerability and vulnerable populations in addition to extending nurses' thinking on the theoretical formulations that guide practice. It is a timely and necessary response to the culturally diverse vulnerable populations for whom nurses must provide appropriate and precise care.

This volume breaks new ground by investigating the ethics of vulnerability. Drawing on various ethical traditions, the contributors explore the nature of vulnerability, the responsibilities owed to the vulnerable, and by whom.

Medical and bioethical issues have spawned a great deal of debate in both public and academic contexts. Little has been done, however, to engage with the underlying issues of the nature of medicine and its role in human community. This book seeks to fill that gap by providing Christian philosophical and theological reflections on the nature and purposes of medicine and its role in a Christian understanding of human society. The book provides two main 'doorways' into a Christian philosophical theology of medicine. First it presents a brief description of the contexts in which medicine is practiced in the early 21st century, identifying key problems and challenges that medicine must address. It then turns to issues in contemporary bioethics, demonstrating how the debate is rooted in conflicting visions of the nature of medicine (and so human existence). This leads to a discussion of some of the philosophical and theological resources currently available for those who would reflect 'Christianly' on medicine. The heart of the book consists of an articulation of a Christian understanding of medicine as both a scholarly and a social practice, articulating the philosophical-theological framework which informs this perspective. It fleshes out features of medicine as an inherently moral practice, one informed by a Christian social vision and shaped by key theological commitments. The book closes by returning to the issues relating to the context of medicine and bioethics with which it opened, demonstrating how a Christian philosophical-theology of medicine informs and enriches those discussions.

On average, people in Europe are living longer, and are in better health. Despite this, however, a significant degree of health inequality is emerging among different socioeconomic groups. Assessment-of-need procedures and eligibility rules define the target population in ‘need-of-care’, and represent a compulsory gateway for olderadults in order to receive home-care benefits, either in-kind or in-cash. In this context, the economic relevance of formal long-term care has been growing and the rates of care-dependent older people in need of long-term care are estimated to increase in the forthcoming decades. The authors of this volume compare micro-data from SHARE (the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe) and ELSA (the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing) across Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and United Kingdom’s England and Wales, where eligibility rules are care-blind. They critically review long-term care regulations in Europe, offering a detailed taxonomy of the role and the characteristics of vulnerability-evaluations and eligibility criteria. This book is of interest to academics in health economics and social policy, managers in the health sector, policy makers and professionals interested in the design, implementation and evaluation of long-term care policies. It could also be used to support different courses in the fields of ageing, health economics and policy evaluation.

Policies to assist or protect vulnerable youth play a crucial role in welfare and criminal justice processes, but what role does the discourse surrounding these policies play in how they are put into action? Bringing together real-life examples with academic and practical applications, this book explores the implications of a "vulnerability zeitgeist" in policy and practice. It draws on in-depth research with marginalized young people and the professionals who support them to question whether the rise of the concept of vulnerability serves the interests of those who are most disadvantaged. Vulnerability and Young People will be important reading for scholars, students, and policy makers interested in the care and protection of young people.

Medical and bioethical issues have spawned a great deal of debate in both public and academic contexts. Little has been done, however, to engage with the underlying issues of the nature of medicine and its role in human community. This book seeks to fill that gap by providing Christian philosophical and theological reflections on the nature and purposes of medicine and its role in a Christian understanding of human society. The book provides two main 'doorways' into a Christian philosophical theology of medicine. First it presents a brief description of the contexts in which medicine is practiced in the early 21st century, identifying key problems and challenges that medicine must address. It then turns to issues in contemporary bioethics, demonstrating how the debate is rooted in conflicting visions of the nature of medicine (and so human existence). This leads to a discussion of some of the philosophical and theological resources currently available for those who would reflect 'Christianly' on medicine. The heart of the book consists of an articulation of a Christian understanding of medicine as both a scholarly and a social practice, articulating the philosophical-theological framework which informs this perspective. It fleshes out features of medicine as an inherently moral practice, one informed by a Christian social vision and shaped by key theological commitments. The book closes by returning to the issues relating to the context of medicine and bioethics with which it opened, demonstrating how a Christian philosophical-theology of medicine informs and enriches those discussions.

Alongside globalization, the sense of vulnerability among people and populations has increased. We feel vulnerable to disease as new infections spread rapidly across the globe, while disasters and climate change make health increasingly precarious. Moreover, clinical trials of new drugs often exploit vulnerable populations in developing countries that otherwise have no access to healthcare and new genetic technologies make people with disabilities vulnerable to discrimination. Therefore the concept of ‘vulnerability’ has contributed new ideas to the debates about the ethical dimensions of medicine and healthcare. This book explains and elaborates the new concept of vulnerability in today’s bioethics. Firstly, Henk ten Have argues that vulnerability cannot be fully understood within the framework of individual autonomy that dominates mainstream bioethics today: it is often not the individual person who is vulnerable, rather that his or her vulnerability is created through the social and economic conditions in which he or she lives. Contending that the language of vulnerability offers perspectives beyond the traditional autonomy model, this book offers a new approach which will enable bioethics to evolve into a global enterprise. This groundbreaking book critically analyses the concept of vulnerability as a global phenomenon. It will appeal to scholars and students of ethics, bioethics, globalization, healthcare, medical science, medical research, culture, law, and politics.