Vulnerability as the Human Condition

An asymmetry at the heart of relationships between patients and health-care professionals places a particular moral weight on the side of the professionals—a responsibility to undermine conditions of vulnerability where possible in order to empower patients. This responsibility is best met by treating patients (and their families) as members of one and the same community that health-care professionals inhabit. A “pragmatic” approach to conditions of vulnerability in health care emphasizes the need to attend to the individuality of each patient and his or her vulnerabilities in order to help empower patients.