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Nursing and Ethics: Link Between the Ethics of Emmanuel Levinas and The Theory of Jean Watson
1 Damjan Abou Aldan
1 High school Koprivnica, Koprivnica, Croatia
Article received: 04.08.2021.
Article accepted: 01.10.2021.
Author for correspondence:
Damjan Abou Aldan High school Koprivnica
Trg Slobode 7, 48000 Koprivnica, croatia e-mail: daboualdan@gmail.com
Keywords: levinas, other, Watson, nursing, care
Abstract
Introduction. emmanuel levinas' ethics had an impact on Jean Watson's 1979 Theory of Human caring. Watson suggests that nursing ethics may be closest to the ethics of care as determined by levinas.
Aim. To establish arguments for and against abovementioned thinking.
Methods. After
an initial comparison of the statements made by Watson and the
statements made by levinas, a review of scientific articles was made to
establish the link between nursing ethics and the ethics of levinas.
Results. About
20 articles and books were analyzed. A dozen references have been
singled out to establish a link in argumentation, one paper presented a
partial critique, while one suggested that nursing ethics should be
based on some other ethical theory.
Conclusion. Watson
suggested that nursing ethics could be based on the ethics of levinas.
Since the 1990s some authors have made affirmative claims to this
proposal, while others question the real possibility of its application
in practice. Most authors agree that nursing ethics should not be based
on the virtues of christian charity, nor on deontological foundations
or bioethical principlism. no other theory invokes that level of
responsibility to another human being as levinas does. critics say his
ethics are extremely abstract and as such are difficult to apply in a
practical discipline such as nursing.