Author:

Keywords:

Science & Technology, Life Sciences & Biomedicine, Agriculture, Dairy & Animal Science, Green & Sustainable Science & Technology, Veterinary Sciences, Agriculture, Science & Technology - Other Topics, veterinary nurse, Tronto, Code of Professional Conduct

Abstract:

Veterinary ethics is currently focussed on the role and responsibility of the veterinary (profession). This stands in contrast with the importance of the veterinary nurse with regard to the welfare of the animals. In some countries there are Codes of Professional Conduct in place, books and articles on the subject have appeared. These usually start from (or are concerned with) a combination of legal, ethical, and professional issues for vet nurses. However, these are of little (or no) use in countries were the activities of vet nurses are unregulated. Unfortunately, the influential works in veterinary ethics (Mullan and Fawcett, but certainly Rollin), pay little attention to the specific situation of vet nurses. Animal ethics faces similar problems as those Tronto identified in feminist theories, most importantly the paralysing ‘sameness/difference debate’. She sees an Ethic of Care as a solution because it ‘requires that one start from the standpoint of the one needing care’. She also sees care as a practice (set of acts and habits), which arguebly puts it closer to the discussion on professions than to that on actions, setting it apart from the interpretation of ethics as a set of rules, as a Code would do. The four basic elements in Tronto’s Ethic of Care are attentiveness, responsibility, competence, and responsiveness. All are readiliy translatable to the realm of care for animals. The conclusion that an Ethic of Care requires (a great deal) more than good intentions, seems valid, but the most compelling is the assertion that the central question is transformed from ‘What’ to ‘How’. It’s best asset is, as Tronto puts it, that ‘Care puts ideals into action.’, also for animals.