We are all frail

I hurt therefore I am: a new approach to our shared vulnerability? Tom Shakespeare, a social scientist and bioethicist, argues in this thoughtful essay that society should be able to acknowledge that disabilities can cause pain and suffering without disabled people feeling dehumanised. "In Britain and other settings, there has been a public health debate regarding whether disabled people, particularly people with intellectual disabilities, should get priority in receiving the coronavirus vaccine. Most would agree that people at higher risk of getting ill or dying from this disease should jump to the front of this queue. People with Down’s syndrome, for example, have a very much higher risk of an adverse outcome from COVID-19. Those with cancer, or some respiratory conditions, or heart disease, or diabetes, also appear to be at greater risk, among others. But some activists have been unhappy at being labelled as ‘vulnerable’. This is because they think this terminology reinforces negative ideas about invalidity or inferiority."