Pathophobia, Vices, and Illness

ABSTRACT

I introduce the concept of pathophobia to capture the range of morally objectionable forms of treatment to which somatically ill persons are subjected. After distinguishing this concept from sanism and ableism, I argue that the moral wrongs of pathophobia are best analysed using a framework of vice ethics. To that end I describe five clusters of pathophobic vices and failings, illustrating each with examples from three influential illness narratives.

KEYWORDS:

• Illness
• vices
• suffering
• phenomenology of illness
• Havi Carel

Acknowledgments

I am very grateful for insightful comments of two referees, Sophie Atkinson, Havi Carel, Craig French, Emma Jaura (who did invaluable research work on Conway’s Ordinary Life), Matthew Ratcliffe, and to very collegial audiences at the Universities of Aberdeen, Sheffield, York and University College Dublin.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

I acknowledge the support of the UCD Centre for Ethics in Public Life and of Universitas21.