POPULATIONS VULNERABLE TO THE ETHICS OF CARING

This paper presents the argument that any patient population which can be perceived as being culpable for the pain they are in is vulnerable to the ethics of caring. First, both the ethics of caring and justice are reviewed, and the inadequacies of each, with regard to nursing, are discussed. The problems of the ethics of caring are demonstrated empirically and with interviews done by the author. Then the impacted populations are reviewed. The conclusion presents an emerging vision of synthesis between the moral concepts of caring and justice.