No Place Like Home?: Feminist Ethics and Home Health Care

Acknowledgments

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book could not have been written without the input and support of certain key persons and institutions. I would like to thank Loyola University for funding my summer research in 1999; the paper I wrote that summer went a long way toward developing my thinking on ethics and home health care. I am also grateful to Jim and Hilde Lindemann Nelson and their National Endowment for the Humanities seminar entitled “Bioethics in Particular,” which I attended in summer 2000. During this seminar and the time that followed, I developed a great deal of my thinking about identity, relationship, and the value of familial caretaking. Special acknowledgment must be extended to the staff at Indiana University Press, especially to Marilyn Grobschmidt, who guided me through the publication process. I owe a further debt of gratitude to my colleagues David Ozar and Mark Waymack, who gave me feedback on various ideas contained within this book. My “Topics in Feminism” graduate course in spring 2001 also gave me the opportunity to discuss and debate feminist ethics and caretaking. Thanks to students like Alex de Miranda, Abe Schwab, and Lynn Maitland for their own thoughtful comments on this topic. It was through edifying relationships with very special women that I found the commitment and stamina to see this project through. As always, Christine Overall and Elisabeth Boetzkes have been mentors, role models, and inspirations. Their ongoing support and affirmation that this was a book worth doing is what helped me to see it through to the end. My mother , Lauretta Parks, provided unfailing love, care, and the “you can do it!” attitude that kept my spirits up throughout the long process. Most of all, I want to thank my husband and colleague, David Ingram. He had limitless patience with me and my home care obsession; he acted as my sounding board and editor, and most important of all, he helped me to let go of the project when the time came. His terrific sense of humor helped me to keep things in perspective, and his unfailing support showed me what care is all about. For this, and for all his outstanding personal qualities, I am grateful. No Place Like Home? ...