Abstract
The concept of vulnerability originates from the verb vulnerare which signifies “to hurt, to wound”. The word calls to mind a human condition made fragile by bodily or moral wounds that life’s risks incur to us. These risks imply sufferings that are quasi-indelible and remain in the human person as weakening, therefore rendering the person dependent. Very often a damaged sensitivity makes critical reflection difficult and discouragement accompanied by despair isolates vulnerable individuals in a world of solitude. Let us add that vulnerability does not only concern individual persons but also indeed groups of individuals, entire communities .
(25 August 2011) Ethique et aspects légaux de la vulnérabilité dans la perspective chrétienne (trans: Letendre MC).
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Notes
- 1.
For the first time at the international level, the Convention ruled on some questions which are undertaken by biomedicine in relation to human rights. The regulation date is April 4, 1997 and entered into effect on December 1, 1999.
- 2.
In the Preamble, we read: “Considering that the recognition of the inherent dignity of all the members of the human family and their equal and inalienable rights constitutes the foundation of liberty, justice and peace in the world.”
- 3.
This declaration was adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO on October 19, 2005.
- 4.
This committee was created in 1993. It comprises 36 independent experts who oversee the progress of research in the life sciences and their applications, ever careful to safeguard the principles of human dignity and liberty. The IBC is the only world organization aimed at reflection of bioethical issues.
- 5.
It is a question of personalistic ethics based fundamentally on human rights. “We know that law aims to apply the ethical principle of justice. Consequently, the simple fact that a political view may conform to the law does not signify that it is justified on the ethical level…Alone, law does not make policies or ethical practices.”
- 6.
Agape is a testament to the immeasurable love of God who departs from his essential attribute (immortality) to go through death in order to save humanity from death.
- 7.
The action of intuitive understanding of others through emotional communication which fosters an exchange of sentiments from the one speaking and the one spoken to. Empathy is attention centered on that which the vulnerable person emotionally feels.
- 8.
See the recent encyclical of Pope Benedict XVI Caritas in Veritate.
- 9.
On the thoughts of St. Gregory of Nyssa, among other remarks: “By his fault, man has abandoned the divine form… Only God can lift up the one who has fallen and bring back the lost life. God could have saved man immediately, but he has chosen the long detour of the Incarnation in order to deify him: God blends himself with our being in order that thanks to his blending with the divine, our being may become divine.”
- 10.
On this topic, M. Andronikof remarks in characteristic fashion: “But to condemn an action, for example abortion, does not prevent the Church from welcoming those who have succumbed to this by helplessness. Rather, on the contrary, the Church is instructed to extend her mercy to them all.”
- 11.
The natural end of man in relation to the accomplishment of man’s being according to the inherent finality of his being.
- 12.
συνοδεια in Greek. Plutarch. Morals, p. 891 ff.
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Tzitzis, S. (2014). The Ethical and the Legal Aspects of Vulnerability in the Christian Perspective. In: Tham, J., Garcia, A., Miranda, G. (eds) Religious Perspectives on Human Vulnerability in Bioethics. Advancing Global Bioethics, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8736-9_6
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