Comment - Nursing Ethics

Superficial interpretations of the ethics of care suggest that it is relevant only to the ‘care’ professions. For the journal of Nursing Ethics to produce a special issue on care ethics is therefore expected. However, developments have explored the relevance of care ethics and the underpinning notion of ‘relational ontology’ to politics, violence, war and cosmopolitan justice (see, for example, the special issue of Ethics and Social Welfare 2010). This collection of articles provided by philosophers and health care theorists engages with the challenge raised by combining philosophical underpinnings of theoretical developments in care ethics with their application to health care situations.