Taking care of one's own: justice and family caregiving

Abstract

This paper asks whether adult children have a duty of justice to act as caregivers for their frail, elderly parents. I begin (Sections I. and II.) by locating the historical reasons why relationships within families were not thought to raise issues of justice. I argue that these reasons are misguided. The paper next presents specific examples showing the relevance of justice to family relationships. I point out that in the United States today, the burden of caregiving for dependent parents falls disproportionately on women (Sections III. and IV.). The paper goes on to use Rawls' theoretical tool of the veil of ignorance to argue that caring for parents should not be linked to a person's sex and more generally, that there is no duty of justice to assume the role of caregiver for dependent parents (Sections V.). Although justice does not provide the moral foundations for parent care, I show that it nonetheless places important limits on the instinct to care. I conclude that the voice of justice should be audible, and is intrinsically present, within families.