Not the usual suspects: adressing layers of vulnerability

• Autores: Luna, Florencia; Vanderpoel, Sheryl
• Año de publicación: 2013
• Idioma: inglés
• Tipo de recurso: artículo
• Materia: Layers of Vulnerability; Public Health Policies; Middle Class Pregnant Women; Latin America; Cord Blood Bank
• Institución: Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas

This paper challenges the traditional account of vulnerability in healthcare which conceptualizes vulnerability as a list of identifiable subpopulations. This list of "usual suspects", focusing on groups from lower resource settings, is a narrow account of vulnerability. In this article we argue that in certain circumstances middle-class individuals can be also rendered vulnerable. We propose a relational and layered account of vulnerability and explore this concept using the case study of cord blood (CB) banking.
In the first section, two different approaches to "vulnerability" are contrasted: categorical versus layered. In the second section, we describe CB banking and present a case study of CB banking in Argentina. We examine the types of pressure that middle-class pregnant women feel when considering CB collection and storage. In section three, we use the CB banking case study to critique the categorical approach to vulnerability: this model is unable to account for the ways in which these women are vulnerable. A layered account of vulnerability identifies several ways in which middle-class women are vulnerable. Finally, by utilizing the layered approach, this paper suggests how public health policies could be designed to overcome vulnerabilities.

Fil: Luna, Florencia. Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales. Sede Académica Argentina Buenos Aires. Programa de Bioética; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina
Fil: Vanderpoel, Sheryl. World Health Organization. Department of Reproductive Health and Research; Suiza