THE DIS-(OTHERLY)ABLED AND PUBLIC MORALITY

This article investigates the following question: How do disabled people and the response of Christians to them influence public morality? In a first round it is argued that the dominant ethical approach to health care, which is an approach that functions within the modern or liberal approach to morality, does not produce an adequate description of and response to the challenge posed by disabled people. The understanding of morality, anthropology and theology (specifically the doctrine of God) is consecutively described and evaluated. Morality, it is argued, is more than the narrow morality of the modern paradigm, which focuses only on the moral principles, and rules, which enable a society to exist without conflict and violence. Morality is broader. It has to do with the underlying perspectives of religious and nonreligious traditions on the nature of the good life, good societies and good people. Morality in the sphere of medical care is also wide morality. With regard to anthropology it is argued that the worth of human beings is not defined by their capacity of self-consciousness and reflective thinking, but by their vulnerability and their dependence upon each other. The Trinitarian basis of this anthropology is investigated. In a final round the implications of this alternative understanding of morality, anthropology and theology for the ethical challenges posed by disabled people are outlined. The meaning of these challenges for public morality is finally spelled out.