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As the covid-19 pandemic continues to progress across the world, the concept of vulnerability echoes throughout various social and political discourses. For example, it became clear early on, that older people, or those with underlying health conditions were more vulnerable to the severe effects of coronavirus. Further, as a recent Lancet editorial argues, those who are socio-economically disadvantaged are also particularly vulnerable in the context of the pandemic, and as a result of our public health responses.
From the perspective of ethics, it is important not just to recognise various kinds vulnerabilities, but to delineate them in a way that clarifies the nature and scope of associated moral responsibilities. We must enquire how people have become vulnerable, or are made vulnerable; who and what contributes to creating and exacerbating certain vulnerabilities; and who should contribute to alleviating or preventing them. Vulnerability has had a long—at times, fraught—history in bioethics. The concept has a strong normative pull, in that it engages our moral attention and urges us to action. Equally, as a moral concept, its scope has been questioned, as...