Fragile Lives: Understanding Vulnerability in Old Age

Catalog description

In bioethics, vulnerability is a very important concept along with ethical principles such as autonomy, justice, beneficence, integrity, and dignity. The notion is an integral part of several international ethical and legal guidelines such as the Nuremberg Code and the Belmont report which aimed to protect the vulnerable from inhuman medical practices. Despite being at the heart of bioethical inquiry, the concept of vulnerability has no clear-cut definition. Vulnerable populations are generally believed to include (but are not limited to) minors, incapacitated adults, prisoners, institutionalized individuals, minorities, refugees, nomads, homeless persons, unemployed, poor persons, pregnant women, women, and older persons. This labeling approach to vulnerability has been strongly criticized in the bioethics literature for being broad and thus lacks discrimination of individual and situation differences.