The precarity of the carer in care ethics

• Main Author: Soh, Bernice Jing Yuan
• Other Authors: Melvin Chen
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2023
• Subjects: Humanities::Philosophy
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/165447
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

In this paper, I aim to flesh out a gap within Care Ethics. To be specific, I argue that Care Ethics lack a nuanced account of the motivations for self-care. To flesh the gap out and to show its relevance, I will be using the case study of Postpartum Depression (PPD), where we can see the precarious position of the Carer, a parent. A parent is a position where one is saddled with a moral expectation to care for their child, hence we will see how this is implicated with PPD. With PPD in the mix, we will be able to see how exactly Care Ethics has a gap in account for what motivations there are to care for oneself. This paper will consider a solution to the lack of nuance in self-care, through creating a distinction between simple self-care versus restorative self-care.