Professional Loving Care: An Ethical View of the Healthcare Sector

This practice-based philosophical study presents the view that

professional healthcare is not just one of the many paid professions. On

the contrary, healthcare should be redefined as a modest but meaningful

variant of enacted love for one’s fellow human beings, practiced in an

institutional context. There is a reciprocal side to it, as it is not

just professionals who show loving care for their patients, residents,

or clients. Those groups have feelings of gratitude, respect and

affinity for the professionals, although not all of them are equally

satisfied. Obviously, love should be understood in a non-romantic and

non-erotic way, and its location is not the private sphere.

Professional Loving Care is the condensed and updated version of Menslievende

zorg, originally written within the context of the Low Countries,

but dealing with issues that are relevant to western healthcare systems

in general. The Dutch edition was published in 2005 and by 2011 it was

in its sixth reprint. Many professionals and patients stated that the

book helped rethinking both the practice and the basis of professional

healthcare in late modern society.