Vulnerability Of Human Beings Research Articles

Ethical issues experienced by nurses during COVID-19 pandemic: Systematic review.

Frontline nurses who care for patients with COVID-19 work in stressful environments, and many inevitably struggle with unanticipated ethical issues. Little is known about the unique, ethically sensitive issues that nurses faced when caring for patients with COVID-19. To better understand how frontline nurses who care for patients with COVID-19 experience ethical issues towards others and themselves. Systematic review of qualitative evidence carried out according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-analyses on ethical literature (PRISMA-Ethics). The electronic databases PubMed, Embase, Cinahl, Web of Science, Philosopher's Index, and Scopus were queried to identify candidate articles. Articles appearing from March 1, 2020 to December 31, 2022 were considered if they met the following inclusion criteria: (1) Published qualitative and mixed method studies and (2) ethical issues experienced by nurses caring for patients with COVID-19. We appraised the quality of included studies, and data analysis was guided by QUAGOL principles. Twenty-six studies meeting our inclusion criteria for how nurses experience ethical issues were characterised by two key themes: (1) the moral character of nurses as a willingness to respond to the vulnerability of human beings and (2) ethical issues nurses acted as barriers sometimes, impeding them from responding to requests of vulnerable human beings for dignified care. Our review provides a deeper understanding of nurses' experiences of ethically sensitive issues, while also highlighting the critical need for adjustments to be made at organisational and societal levels. Ethical issues that emerged in situations where organisational and situational constraints impeded nurses' ethical responses to patients' appeals suggests that early practical support should be made available to resolve ethical issues recognised by nurses. Such support contributes to protecting and promoting not only the dignity of patients with COVID-19 but also of fellow humans in need during crisis.

윤리적 폭력을 너머 상생을 위한 공감으로

This study aims to analyse the vision of sympathy in George Eliot's Middlemarch, reflecting on the singularity of others and common vulnerability in human life discussed in Judith Butler's Precarious life, Giving an Account of Oneself. Middlemarch is set in the fictional provincial village, Middlemarch in England during the early 1830s, the age of English reform. Middlemarch reveals the roots of the precarious lives of Dorothea Brooke and other characters. In other words, it surfaces the process of overcoming ethical violence, which is structured in an imperfect social environment, through sympathy toward others. Further, it focuses on the interdependence and interconnectedness of society and individuals as well as among individuals. Eliot emphasizes sympathy as a medium for emerging from institutionalized ethical violence in society. Eliot resonates with Butler in that the novel explores and urges ways to practice reconciliation and a harmonious life for the coexistence of 'I,' 'you,' and 'us.' For Eliot and Butler, the relationship for a livable life begins with sympathetic imagination that draws attention to the sufferings and losses of others, and common vulnerability of human beings.

Legal anthropocentrism between nature and technology: the new vulnerability of human beings.

Reflection on the possible reform of the Italian Civil Code requires an analysis of the evolution of the relationship between subject and object of law in the legal systems of the Western area. From this perspective, we note the thrusts toward a recognition of legal subjectivity to nature, animals, but especially to devices endowed with AI. At the same time, on another side, strong tendencies toward objectification/reification of human beings (and animals) emerge, from their origin to the different stages of their development. Anthropocentrism implodes, heading toward a transhumanist drift that only an inclusive humanistic vision of every living being could stem.

Beyond poto mitan: Challenging the “Strong Black Woman” archetype and allowing space for tenderness

AbstractIn this article, we contend that the “strong Black woman” archetype constricts expressions of Black womanhood and girlhood and thus limits individual and collective liberation. We maintain that strength need not preclude tenderness, highlighting two forms: wounded tenderness—a raw and aching feeling pointing to the vulnerability of human beings—and liberated tenderness, a practice of meeting woundedness with embodied awareness and gentleness. We foreground the concept of poto mitan to illustrate how the “strong Black woman” archetype upholds virtues of strength at the expense of tenderness, thus taking up Faye Harrison's call to theorize from “ex‐centric sites.” Translated as “center posts,” poto mitan describes the architecture of spaces for traditional ancestor worship and conventionally refers to Haitian women's central role as pillars of the family and community. We begin this article by discussing the limits of this discourse within feminist scholarship and activism. Second, we examine how this discourse both engenders and limits liberation for Haitian rural women. By concluding with “tenderness as method,” we argue that feminist anthropologists working with Black women must not only attune themselves to how discourses and performances of strength may occlude liberation but also call on our own vulnerability to allow space for liberated tenderness.

Towards construction of the richer concept of justice and the effective concept of care

Professor Tetsuhiko Shinagawa is a professor of philosophy and ethics at the Faculty of Letters, Kansai University, Japan, who is interested in the foundations of ethics. He believes that modern orthodox ethical theories such as liberalism and deontology are founded on justice and right. But he sees flaws in these theories as they presuppose that society consists of equal and self-sufficient members, which is not the case. He is interested in ethical theories that are founded on norms other than justice and can be applied to relation with asymmetry of power, specifically Carol Gilligan's ethic of care and Hans Jonas' principle of responsibility. The former is a normative ethical theory that stems from the interconnected nature of the human condition and surrounds the need for responsiveness to the vulnerability of human beings, while the latter posits that human survival is dependent on our ability to care for the planet as the home of future generations, with our actions having a direct impact on the Earth's future. Shinagawa is investigating how the ethical norms of justice and care can be applied to social issues and aid vulnerable members of society. The two ethical norms are contrasted but mutually supplementing and Shinagawa is interested in how they can lead to overlapping guidelines for aiding the needy as an actual social issue, transforming their respective conceptions. This research is looking to overcome limitations associated with the two social norms and combine the two norms in order to arrive at a richer concept of justice and an effective concept of care.

Disability in Islam: a Sufi perspective

In Islam, the issue of disability and vulnerability has only been addressed at the sociological or theological-legal level. The studies mainly highlighted the societal nature of disability and the legal issues faced by vulnerable groups, with theological issues thus remaining intimately linked to legal issues. Vulnerability is a positive notion present in the Qur’an and hadith, generating legislation for deficient individuals that insist on the duties that fall to the society. The objective of this communication will thus be to examine precisely the possibility based on the spiritual dimension of making a theology of vulnerability in Islam. Sufism in particular appears to be a fundamental reading key and remains a broad field of investigation to be explored in the investigation of the question. Sufism places the vulnerability of human beings at the heart of their spiritual journey since it participates in their ontological condition as servants, the only guarantee of the emergence of God’s power and presence among us. The interest will therefore be to understand to what extent the teachings of Sufism can offer a contribution for disability discourse.

Escuta na relação médico-paciente: uma arte perdida

INTRODUÇÃO: A relação médico-paciente teve várias reinterpretações no decorrer dos séculos sendo pautada na escuta atenta primordialmente, característica que vêm sendo negligenciada em muitos contextos atuais. Tal relação médico-paciente se mostra fundamental para compreensão do quadro patológico em análise e, também, para o entendimento desse paciente como ser humano o que atribuirá maior dignidade a esse momento tão íntimo, porém tão essencial na prática médica. Com isso, a literatura pode ser utilizada como uma ferramenta para incentivar o desenvolvimento humano dos profissionais e estudantes e subsequentemente a reflexão disso nessa importante relação. DESENVOLVIMENTO: Atualmente se percebe notável enfraquecimento da relação médico-paciente devido, principalmente, ao culto exacerbado do tecnicismo e depreciação do cultural, como os vários segmentos da literatura, quando, na verdade, cada um desses aspectos possuem seu espaço e devem se complementar. Tendo isso em vista, ocorre um maior distanciamento entre médico e paciente o que acaba por prejudicar a imagem do exame clínico moldado pelo que deveria ser um co-protagonismo entre esses dois indivíduos. Devido a isso, o médico se torna cada vez mais insensível e, por conseguinte, o paciente se torna cada vez mais inalcançável o que dificulta a devida promoção de saúde e futuro bem-estar desta pessoa. Assim, a literatura pode inserir-se como uma ferramenta que estimulará mudança desse contexto, seja pelo contato do médico com temas recorrentes no seu dia a dia a partir da visão de seus pacientes; seja pelo próprio autoconhecimento adquirido capaz de fazê-lo compreender a vulnerabilidade dos seres humanos, inclusive a sua própria. Ademais, outra importante função que a literatura pode propiciar é a de facilitar a própria coleta dos dados – por meio da linguagem ou até mesmo por ações realizadas pelo profissional – a qual terá desdobramentos importantes no prognóstico daquele paciente. CONCLUSÃO: Médicos e estudantes dessa área devem propiciar o maior conforto possível para o paciente que se encontra no estado de vulnerabilidade que a moléstia propicia e isso pode ser alcançado mais fácil e eficientemente com a utilização da literatura associada ao tecnicismo de maneira que se tornem complementares e abarquem os vários segmentos inerentes ao ser humano.

A Market Scheduling for New Normal Logistics in the Wake of Corona Virus Diseases-19 in Bandung City

Recent developments on the worldwide spread of Corona Virus Diseases-19 (COVID-19) show the vulnerability of human beings to pandemic risks in terms of biological, social, and economic factors. While human lives are the most important factor, a proposed solution dealing with pandemics should be sustainable which also includes other factors. Quarantines and physical distancing have been seen as effective ways to slow down the spread of COVID-19. We therefore propose a market scheduling model with multi-objectives to support physical distancing minimizing the number of people in a certain area in a given time (crowds) and minimizing the virus spread rates. An analytical model is proposed and solved for Bandung City. The results show some promising ideas on how to slow down the virus spread without compromising both health and economic objectives. The future potential research of the model is also presented.

ANDERSON ON VULNERABILITY

Recently, feminists have begun to draw attention to the vulnerability of human beings. This theoretical perspective lies in contrast to an element of the philosophical tradition that values autonomy and freedom. I would like, in this paper, to engage with some of the work of the feminist philosopher Pamela Anderson on the notion of vulnerability. I think that Anderson’s recognition of vulnerability is important but I’d like to suggest a different way of thinking about this issue from Pamela’s. I think there are more difficulties than Anderson recognizes with Kant’s view of autonomy. Anderson argues that Kant’s theory can be adapted to cover the relationality of human beings with each other. However, I don’t think that this can be done without distorting Kant. Linked to this, she suggests that feminists ought to take into account existing “narrative identities.” However, these existing “narrative identities” may be detrimental to their interests. Subjects may be “constituted” by injurious social norms. It seems to me that there is an ontological and normative dimension of the problem that is insufficiently articulated in Pamela’s account. Kant’s view of autonomy leaves no room for vulnerability in the sense of relationality. Drawing on Simone de Beauvoir I would like to suggest a different concept of freedom and autonomy from that of Kant that allows for vulnerability. De Beauvoir argues that the freedom of each of us requires the freedom of others. Additionally I will suggest that de Beauvoir offers an account of the conditions for the removal of oppression, including the elimination of ethically detrimental aspects of vulnerability.

Zufall, Erlösung und Politik

Master and Margarita is a masterpiece of literary modernity. Mikhail Bulgakov wrote the novel in the 1930s in Moscow under the life-threatening conditions of personal persecution. The novel shows how all rationalist claims to power fail because of the invincible power of chance. The utopian state of peace and freedom that the novel creates lies in a sphere beyond all real conflicts and tensions. The present Corona crisis puts the planning reason, which characterizes the history of Western rationality, in many ways questioned. It testifies to the enduring power of chance and thus to the principal limits of human domination of nature. This experience should sensitize our political thinking for the fundamental vulnerability of human beings and the existence of the unpredictable in a new way.

Are older people a vulnerable group? Philosophical and bioethical perspectives on ageing and vulnerability

The elderly are often considered a vulnerable group in public and academic bioethical debates and regulations. In this paper, we examine and challenge this assumption and its ethical implications. We begin by systematically delineating the different concepts of vulnerability commonly used in bioethics, before then examining whether these concepts can be applied to old age. We argue that old age should not, in and of itself, be used as a marker of vulnerability, since ageing is a process that can develop in a variety of different ways and is not always associated with particular experiences of vulnerability. We, therefore, turn to more fundamental phenomenological considerations in order to reconstruct from a first person perspective the intricate interconnections between the experiences of ageing and vulnerability. According to this account, ageing and old age are phenomena in which the basic anthropological vulnerability of human beings can manifest itself in an increased likelihood of harm and exploitation. Thus, we plead for a combined model of vulnerability that helps to avoid problems related to the current concepts of vulnerability. We conclude first that old age as such is not a sufficient criterion for being categorized as vulnerable in applied ethics, and second that reflections on ageing can help to develop a better understanding of the central role of vulnerability in human existence and in applied ethics.

Vulnerability of human beings to changing climatic conditions: An in depth insight in the Indian context

Vulnerability of human beings to changing climatic conditions: An in depth insight in the Indian context

Re-humanising Coriolanus: Community and the ethical self

In this article I analyse subjectivity in Coriolanus taking as a starting point the traditional antagonism between essentialist humanism and cultural materialism. While mainstream humanism has approached Shakespeare’s plays stressing the transcendental nature and autonomy of the subject, cultural materialism has challenged that assumption by underscoring the actual lack of freedom of the individual whose actual choices are determined not by the inherent nature of the hero but by social and political forces. My aim is to try to bridge the gap between two seemingly divergent ways of understanding subjectivity by adopting a more sceptical form of humanism, which is based on both the acceptance of the limits and the vulnerability of human beings (Mousley 2007) and recent developments in communitarian theory and biopolitics (Nancy 1991, Agambem 1995, Butler 2006, Esposito 2012). I contend that Coriolanus is an embodiment of humanity, a singular being capable of making an ethical choice at the risk of his own death.

Study on improvements in general education of culture and arts

It is currently spotlighted to show the significance of empathy-related culture and artistic imagination in the general education of universities. The empathy means the ability of intellectually view the world of others and emotionally perceive it, particularly based on the vulnerability of subjects. The culture and artistic imagination might be educationally developed in order to heighten the subjectivity of individuals, and to consider their involvement with the world of others. It is necessary to highlight the ‘vulnerability-centered empathy’, in which the subjects perceive the world through the webs of interdependence, as a critical factor of the culture-artistic education. The culture and arts education should be performed while taking several considerations. First, it should be oriented on the democracy of citizens for their ‘spiritual elevation’ and ‘empathic enhancement’ with respect to others. Secondly, it should positively consider the ‘factor of plays’ in view of the general education. Thirdly, it should provide the ‘opening field of commons’ like a festival or celebration. Fourthly, it should make students deeply perceive the vulnerability of human beings themselves such that they should take a humble posture toward the others. The culture and arts general education must collectively serve students to cultivate the capacity of constructing narratives such that they find themselves being in the world with the morality of socio-communal sensibility. The Korean universities currently face a critical situation of crisis in the fields of humanity and culture arts under the atmosphere of worldwide neo-liberalism.

Learning from traumatic experiences with brief eclectic psychotherapy for PTSD

Brief eclectic psychotherapy for PTSD (BEPP) is an evidence-based therapeutic approach that combines and integrates elements from psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, and directive psychotherapy. Psychoeducation is done jointly with the patient and his or her partner. Exposure, a structured writing task, and memorabilia are used to help patients accessing, feeling and expressing their suppressed emotions related to the traumatic experience. In the domain of meaning stage, patients will learn how they and their view of the world have changed, and that they have become “sadder but wiser”. Much emphasis is put on the vulnerability of human beings. Finally, an individually tailored farewell ritual is done to end treatment, to reunite with loved ones, and to go on with life.

Tourism development and behavioural changes: evidences from Ratanakiri province, Kingdom of Cambodia

This research paper presents the findings of a research undertaken in Ratanakiri province, Kingdom of Cambodia (Under the RETA 6190 ADB TA project on ‘Preventing the Trafficking of Women and Children and Promoting Safe Migration in the GMS’), with the aim to evaluate the impact of an airport rehabilitation project. It highlights the role that infrastructure development, with a focus on tourism-related projects, can play in a remote rural area and its consequences on local population, especially ethnic minorities. For remote areas, tourism is considered as an accelerating influence on globalisation and in-migration, which, in turn, are seen as the main factors affecting remote local communities to modify behaviours changing from valuing utility to valuing exchange. The rapidity of these cultural changes increase rural depopulation and the vulnerability of human beings to a range of negative situational factors, including loss of land, erosion of community structures and coping mechanisms, and as well as exploitative practices such as debt bondage, prostitution and human trafficking.

A Bayesian Method to Mine Spatial Data Sets to Evaluate the Vulnerability of Human Beings to Catastrophic Risk

Vulnerability of human beings exposed to a catastrophic disaster is affected by multiple factors that include hazard intensity, environment, and individual characteristics. The traditional approach to vulnerability assessment, based on the aggregate-area method and unsupervised learning, cannot incorporate spatial information; thus, vulnerability can be only roughly assessed. In this article, we propose Bayesian network (BN) and spatial analysis techniques to mine spatial data sets to evaluate the vulnerability of human beings. In our approach, spatial analysis is leveraged to preprocess the data; for example, kernel density analysis (KDA) and accumulative road cost surface modeling (ARCSM) are employed to quantify the influence of geofeatures on vulnerability and relate such influence to spatial distance. The knowledge- and data-based BN provides a consistent platform to integrate a variety of factors, including those extracted by KDA and ARCSM to model vulnerability uncertainty. We also consider the model's uncertainty and use the Bayesian model average and Occam's Window to average the multiple models obtained by our approach to robust prediction of the risk and vulnerability. We compare our approach with other probabilistic models in the case study of seismic risk and conclude that our approach is a good means to mining spatial data sets for evaluating vulnerability.

Vulnerability and Human Rights (review)

Reviewed by: Vulnerability and Human Rights Sophie Oliver, Ph.D. (bio) Bryan S. Turner , Vulnerability and Human Rights ( University Park, Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006), pp. 156, ISBN O-271-O27923-4. Vulnerability and Human Rights is the first offering in a series entitled Essays on Human Rights, edited by Thomas [End Page 218] Cushman. The overarching aim of the series is to provide a collection of interdisciplinary, universally accessible yet theoretically provocative approaches to human rights. Bryan S. Turner's contribution offers a self-critical sociological approach. The first two chapters of the book serve to set the theoretical groundwork for, later, more applied analyses of specifically relevant "embodied" human rights issues, namely, cultural rights, reproductive and sexual rights, disability rights and bioethics. While a number of theoretical propositions are explored, the central and most provocative thesis relates to the notion of vulnerability—corporeal, moral and institutional—as the basis of a common human ontology through which human rights may be defined and defended. Criss-crossing with this central proposition are various parallel discussions of key topics including cultural relativism, citizenship, contributory rights, the body in society and cosmopolitanism. Recalling through these debates positions developed in his earlier works, Turner offers the reader a concise yet wide-ranging introduction to a number of vital challenges in human rights discourse today. The first three chapters of the book appear as the most valuable in terms of proposing a provocative and fertile theoretical position in relation to human rights—something that, according to Turner, sociology has so far failed to supply. Turner's explicit aim to think a normative sociology of human rights is coupled with criticisms of the cultural relativism of standard sociological or anthropological contributions to the field. Following Michael Ignatieff, Turner equates cultural relativism with "epistemological disinterest" and "ethical detachment" and seeks in this study to provide an alternative sociological response by means of a turn to critical recognition theory and what he terms "cosmopolitan virtue." Drawing on Habermasian communicative rationality and the Hegelian ethics of mutual recognition, Turner's alternative calls for mutual reflection and criticism, allowing for judgement and non-consensus while at the same time implying a duty of care and respect to other people and their cultures. The notion of a common human vulnerability and the minimalist ontology of human rights this implies return as central to Turner's reflections here, since it is the concept of embodied commonality that, he claims, renders most convincing the notion of cosmopolitan virtue as a duty of recognition towards the other. Human vulnerability for Turner is multi-dimensional, and while much of his discussion focuses on the frailty of the body, a further aspect figures prominently and has significant implications for the human rights regime; namely, the notion of "institutional precariousness." According to Turner, it is the inherent vulnerability of human beings that obliges us to form collective arrangements and create social structures—including human rights mechanisms— in response to potential threats; yet, he asserts, these institutions are themselves fragile when they fail to modernise, or when, enacting the Hobbesian paradox, they come themselves to pose a threat to human welfare. While Turner is right to highlight this general precariousness of human institutions, he overlooks—when he attributes to human rights the unhindered ability to place a check on state power—the possibility that the rights regime itself may in the wrong hands become a tool of abuse. There are, of course, a number of problems with the vulnerability thesis, which Turner attempts to address. Two crucial objections emerging from the liberalist perspective relate, on the one hand, to the relevance, or not, of the [End Page 219] vulnerability argument for civil and political rights, and, on the other hand, to the potentially negative repercussions of the general sociological standpoint, which privileges causality over free will. Turner responds convincingly to these criticisms, highlighting through his discussion of reproductive health and disability rights, both the interdependence of economic, social and cultural rights and civil and political rights, and the potential for free will and individual responsibility to be exercised within a set of preconditions or decision-making contexts. A further objection to the vulnerability thesis, which...

Vulnerable Church in a Vulnerable World? Towards an Ecclesiology of Vulnerability

AbstractThis essay argues that the faithfulness of the church in a world with so many vulnerabilities entails that she acknowledges her own vulnerability and frailty. This ecclesial vulnerability is based in the vulnerability of the triune God to whom she witnesses, as well as in the vulnerability of human beings. On the basis of this trinitarian and anthropological vulnerability, suggestions are made regarding the nature, attitude, and public calling of the church. As witnesses and disciples of Jesus Christ, the church has a threefold presence in public life; namely, to be vulnerable prophets, priests, and royals. A vulnerable church is a faithful church, and therefore, a relevant church.

Children's rights, parents' prerogatives, and society's obligations.

The thesis of this article is that parents do not need specifically defined rights. They have prerogatives that flow from the right of their children to nurturing and protective parenting. The idea of individual rights springs from the vulnerability of human beings in the face of stronger forces. The most vulnerable individuals are children. For this reason, human rights ought to begin with the rights of children in our society and in their families. This article discusses individual rights, society's expectations of parents and children, parental prerogatives and liabilities, parenthood as a developmental stage in the life cycle, parenthood as the foundation of society, and society's obligation to support parenthood.