Fundamentals of an ethics of care

Abstract

Medical ethics initially dedicated itself to principlism, which promised manageability of ethical problems. Only gradually, it was realised that the principlistic approach was biased and one-sided, because many medical-ethical problems do not break down to abstract principles. Due to this new understanding, complementary methodical approaches to medical ethics evolved. One of the most prominent alternative approaches is that of ethics of care. Giovanni Maio presents in details the basic elements of ethics of care, primarily by recourse to Paul Ricoeur. In a second part, he sets out the relevance of care for an adequate handling of medical-ethical problems.