The Ethics of Care (1)

• An obligation to exercise special care toward people with

whom we have valuable & close relationships.
– Compassion, concern, love, friendship, and kindness are virtues
that manifest this dimension of morality.
• An ethic of care emphasizes two moral demands:
– Preserving and nurturing concrete and valuable relationships with
specific persons.
– Exercising special care for those related by attending to their
particular needs, values, desires, and concrete well-being as seen
from their own personal perspective,
– Responding positively to these needs, values, desires, and concrete
well-being, particularly of those who are vulnerable and dependent
on our care.
© Dr Keith Y.N. Ng TME 2 1
 The Ethics of Care (2)

• Demands of caring in conflict with the demands of justice,

though,
• No fixed rule exists to resolve these conflicts.
• Main Criticism:
– Ethics of care can degenerate into unjust favoritism.
– Possibility of burnout syndrome Though the ethics of care can also
lead to burnout,.
• Main advantage of theory:
– it is a corrective to the other approaches that are impartial and
universal

© Dr Keith Y.N. Ng TME 2 2

 Integrating Utility, Rights, Justice and
Caring
• Four main moral considerations:

• 1. Utilitarian standards – used when resources to attain everyone's

objectives. Forced to consider the net social benefits and social costs
consequent on the actions (or policies or institutions) to attain these
objectives.
• 2. Standards that specify how individuals must be treated - must
be employed when our actions and policies will substantially affect the
welfare and freedom of specifiable individuals. Moral reasoning of this
type forces consideration of whether the behavior respects the basic
rights of the individuals involved and whether the behavior is
consistent with one's agreements and special duties.
• 3. Standards of justice - indicate how benefits and burdens should
be distributed among the members of a group. These sorts of standards
must be employed when evaluating actions whose distributive effects
© Dr Keith Y.N. Ng TME 2 3
differ in important ways.
 Integrating Utility, Rights, Justice and Caring
– Four Moral Considerations (1)

• Utilitarian standards
– used when resources are insufficient to attain everyone's objectives,
– forced to consider the net social benefits and social costs consequent
on the actions (or policies or institutions) to attain objectives
• Standards that specify how individuals must be treated
– employed when our actions/policies will affect the welfare and
freedom of specifiable individuals.
– Moral reasoning forces consideration of whether the behavior
respects the basic rights of the individuals involved and whether the
behavior is consistent with one's agreements and special duties.

© Dr Keith Y.N. Ng TME 2 4

 Integrating Utility, Rights, Justice and Caring
– Four Moral Considerations (2)

• Standards of justice
– indicate how benefits and burdens should be distributed.
– standards employ to evaluate actions whose distributive effects differ
in important ways.
• Standards of caring
– indicate the kind of care owed to those with whom we have special
concrete relationships.
– essential when moral questions arise that involve persons embedded
in a close relationships

© Dr Keith Y.N. Ng TME 2 5