Vulnerability as the Antidote to Neoliberalism in Bioethics

Abstract

"The concept of vulnerability has been introduced in the bioethical debate rather recently. In philosophy, vulnerability has been a core notion particularly in Continental schools. In a sense every human being is vulnerable (although different expressions have been used to qualify the human predicament). In bioethics the concept has been introduced initially in the context of clinical research to demarcate groups of individuals or populations as ‘vulnerable’ and therefore entitled to special protections. With the globalization of bioethics, suffering and risk in the face of medical research, technologies and care have become global realities, so that the concept of vulnerability has emerged as one of the principles of global bioethics, for example in the UNESCO Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights. The notion of vulnerability is in fact a criticism of the mainstream bioethical discourse, articulating that emphasis on individual autonomy is insufficient, and that attention should be directed towards the conditions for human flourishing."