Vulnerability in Law and Bioethics.

Understanding universal vulnerability as inherent in human beings raises questions about the use of differentiating and stigmatizing terms such as vulnerable populations, by which individuals are grouped together based on perceived dissimilarity, deviance, or victimhood. Understanding human vulnerability also calls into question concepts, such as individual responsibility and consent, currently relied upon to resolve ethical and legal dilemmas. When normalized, vulnerability provides a powerful and inclusive conceptual tool that can help us define individual, professional, and institutional responsibility in situations of inherent inequality, such as that of researcher/research subject or doctor/patient. An appreciation of our universal vulnerability and the limitations it entails encourages richer and more robust policies and practices than are currently afforded by referring to abstract and individualistic concepts such as autonomy, equality, or independence. In particular, recognition of universal vulnerability reveals the ways in which all human beings inexorably depend on social relationships and institutions throughout the life course.