Human Vulnerability in Medical Contexts

Conceptions of the moral relevance of vulnerability in human life have assumed a deserved prominence in contemporary work in both moral philosophy and political analysis. In the mid-1980s, two important books emerged which had, and continue to have, significant influence within moral and political philosophy and beyond. Those books were Martha Nussbaum’s The Fragility of Goodness[1] and Robert Goodin’s Protecting the Vulnerable: a Reanalysis of our Social Responsibilities [2]. More recently, Catriona Mackenzie, Wendy Rogers, and Susan Dodds edited a collection of essays on this topic in Vulnerability: New Essays in Ethics and Feminist Philosophy [3]. The essays in this special issue of Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics are given context by these important contributions, and can be situated in helpful ways by considering the frameworks set up by them.