ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines how nursing should be understood as a professional role distinct from other contractual role-occupations in a way that influences the way role morality is comprehended. Being constituted by institutional rights and duties that are also moral rights and duties is one defining characteristic of a profession. Some of these rights and duties are special in that people outside the profession are not obligated by the same set of values and duties. Blum is one among a few writers who have focused on the relationship between care, partiality, and role obligations. According to Blum, then, those writers dealing with the conflict between personal and impersonal projects make assumption that ethical reflection takes place within a framework solely defined as a personal–impersonal dichotomy. Although the reasons for impartiality are often used synonymously with agent-neutrality, and the reasons for partiality are often used synonymously with agent-relativity (Feltham, 2010), this assumed correspondence lacks an underlying connection.
