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Vulnerability, diversity and scarcity: on universal rights
This article makes a contribution to the on-going debates about universalism and cultural relativism from the perspective of sociology. We argue that bioethics has a universal range because it relates to three shared human characteristics,—human vulnerability, institutional precariousness and scarci...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Springer Netherlands
2013
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7088674/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23846549 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11019-013-9500-6 |
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author | Turner, Bryan Stanley Dumas, Alex |
author_facet | Turner, Bryan Stanley Dumas, Alex |
author_sort | Turner, Bryan Stanley |
collection | PubMed |
description | This article makes a contribution to the on-going debates about universalism and cultural relativism from the perspective of sociology. We argue that bioethics has a universal range because it relates to three shared human characteristics,—human vulnerability, institutional precariousness and scarcity of resources. These three components of our argument provide support for a related notion of ‘weak foundationalism’ that emphasizes the universality and interrelatedness of human experience, rather than their cultural differences. After presenting a theoretical position on vulnerability and human rights, we draw on recent criticism of this approach in order to paint a more nuanced picture. We conclude that the dichotomy between universalism and cultural relativism has some conceptual merit, but it also has obvious limitations when we consider the political economy of health and its impact on social inequality. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7088674 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2013 |
publisher | Springer Netherlands |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-70886742020-03-23 Vulnerability, diversity and scarcity: on universal rights Turner, Bryan Stanley Dumas, Alex Med Health Care Philos Scientific Contribution This article makes a contribution to the on-going debates about universalism and cultural relativism from the perspective of sociology. We argue that bioethics has a universal range because it relates to three shared human characteristics,—human vulnerability, institutional precariousness and scarcity of resources. These three components of our argument provide support for a related notion of ‘weak foundationalism’ that emphasizes the universality and interrelatedness of human experience, rather than their cultural differences. After presenting a theoretical position on vulnerability and human rights, we draw on recent criticism of this approach in order to paint a more nuanced picture. We conclude that the dichotomy between universalism and cultural relativism has some conceptual merit, but it also has obvious limitations when we consider the political economy of health and its impact on social inequality. Springer Netherlands 2013-07-12 2013 /pmc/articles/PMC7088674/ /pubmed/23846549 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11019-013-9500-6 Text en © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013 This article is made available via the PMC Open Access Subset for unrestricted research re-use and secondary analysis in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for the duration of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic. |
spellingShingle | Scientific Contribution Turner, Bryan Stanley Dumas, Alex Vulnerability, diversity and scarcity: on universal rights |
title | Vulnerability, diversity and scarcity: on universal rights |
title_full | Vulnerability, diversity and scarcity: on universal rights |
title_fullStr | Vulnerability, diversity and scarcity: on universal rights |
title_full_unstemmed | Vulnerability, diversity and scarcity: on universal rights |
title_short | Vulnerability, diversity and scarcity: on universal rights |
title_sort | vulnerability, diversity and scarcity: on universal rights |
topic | Scientific Contribution |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7088674/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23846549 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11019-013-9500-6 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT turnerbryanstanley vulnerabilitydiversityandscarcityonuniversalrights AT dumasalex vulnerabilitydiversityandscarcityonuniversalrights |