Elucidating the concept of vulnerability: Layers not labels

TLDR

A richer understanding of vulnerability is essential to bioethics, especially for international research where economic, social, and political exclusion create new vulnerabilities, and current ethics often mistakenly treat vulnerability as a fixed label on subpopulations. The article critiques the label metaphor of vulnerability in research ethics and proposes a dynamic, layered concept of vulnerability, illustrated through cases involving women. The author analyzes the label metaphor in current ethics statements and introduces a dynamic, layered framework for vulnerability, applying it to case studies of women. The analysis demonstrates the essential role of this revised concept of vulnerability in bioethics and research ethics.

Abstract

In this article I examine several criticisms of the concept of vulnerability. Rather than rejecting the concept, however, I argue that a sufficiently rich understanding of vulnerability is essential to bioethics. The challenges of international research in developing countries require an understanding of how new vulnerabilities arise from conditions of economic, social and political exclusion. A serious shortcoming of current conceptions of vulnerability in research ethics is the tendency to treat vulnerability as a label fixed on a particular subpopulation. My paper examines the role of this “label” metaphor in current statements of research ethics. In contrast to this prevailing “label” metaphor, my own positive account of vulnerability develops a dynamic way of understanding the structure of the concept of vulnerability based on the idea of “layers of vulnerability.” I examine several cases involving women, as they are sometimes labeled as a vulnerable population and sometimes not. My analysis demonstrates the essential role of this revised concept of vulnerability in bioethics and research ethics.