RT Article
T1 The ethics of care: Role obligations and moderate partiality in health care
JF Nursing ethics
VO 18
IS 2
SP 192
OP 200
A1 Nortvedt, Per
A1 Hem, Marit Helene
A1 Skirbekk, Helge
LA English
PB Sage
YR 2011
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1779449046
AB This article contends that an ethics of care has a particular moral ontology that makes it suitable to argue for the normative significance of relational responsibilities within professional health care. This ontology is relational. It means that moral choices always have to account for the web of relationships, the relational networks and responsibilities that are an essential part of particular moral circumstances. Given this ontology, the article investigates the conditions for health care professionals to be partial and to act on the basis of particular responsibilities to their patients. We will argue that priorities could be partial in three ways: first, because there may be exceptional circumstances that allow for giving priority to one patient over another; second, because the integrity of the patient and a health care worker may be connected in special ways; and, finally, even if impartiality is essential, the institutional basis of health care must always give ample space for an ethically qualified individual and personal care for patients. Even if difficult priorities may be necessary, the conditions of institutional health care should always seek to create the prerequisites for nurses and doctors to administer proper care.
K1 relational responsibility
K1 relational ontology
K1 Partiality
K1 Impartiality
K1 ethics of care
DO 10.1177/0969733010388926