ABSTRACT
This chapter establishes a link between a value-based ethics and the practice of care, with the aim of developing a practical ethical approach to moral deliberation on decisions and actions in the care process. This ethical reflection unavoidably relies on a specific normative view, which is expressly grounded in the criterion of the human person ‘adequately considered’ in the Louvain personalist tradition. In order to concretize this criterion, a pattern of ten fundamental values for the care sector is developed: support and inviolability; autonomy, well-being, and privacy; participation, justice, and sustainability; and trust and solidarity. The justification of this pattern lies in the historical development of care paradigms and their underlying values. In the face of tensions and conflicts between these values in the care process, the partners involved enter into dialogue and evaluate the proportionality of values. They aim at a reasonable proportion between those values which are enhanced and those which are violated. To link values in tension or conflict, they emphasize the connecting values of trust and solidarity.
