Christian Bioethics Advance Access originally published online on July 14, 2009
Christian Bioethics 2009 15(2):154-172; doi:10.1093/cb/cbp008
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This article appears in the following Christian Bioethics issue: Diakonia II: Care-Taking in the Medical Realm and its Political Implementation [View the issue table of contents]
Justice in Care—With Special Regard to Long-Term Care
University College, Oslo, Norway
Address correspondence to: Dr. Kai Ingolf Johannessen, Professor of Ethics & Diakonia, Diakonhjemme University College, P.O. Box 184 Vinderen, 0319 Oslo, Norway. E-mail: k.johannessen{at}diakonhjemmet.no
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Abstract |
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In this article, the relevance of justice in care is discussed, with special regard to long-term care. After a short introduction laying out the conceptual framework of justice and care, followed by an exploration of some special challenges within long-term care, this article consists of two main parts. The first part deals with justice as a general (secular) philosophical phenomenon and draws especially upon principles of justice as developed by John Rawls. Both the principle of fair equality of opportunity and the difference principle, according to which an unequal treatment may be justified, provided that those "worst off" benefit mostly and are relevant within the field of care. The feminist debate about an ethics of care is also considered since its more recent contributions offer interesting attempts to mediate between justice and care. The second part of the article introduces a Christian perspective on justice, with relevance for (long-term) care. From a Christian point of view, one will even more strongly than Rawls argue for a conception of justice, which gives priority to those worst off. It is also argued that justice and care converge in the practice of diakonia. Diakonia, in many traditions synonymous with the caring dimension of the church, always had a special focus on long-term care. In this kind of church-based practice, justice and care are reconciled.
Keywords: care, Christian ethics, diakonia, distributive justice, long-term care, suum cuique