Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
assumes a threshold level for each human capability, below which normal
human functioning is not possible. Government policies should aim to lift
citizens above this threshold level (Nussbaum 2006, pp. 71-72).
The basic intuitive notion that forms the starting point of Nussbaum's
capability approach is a concept of human dignity and a dignified human
life and functioning. The central notion is the capabilities someone has to
undertake activities rather than resources available to him because different
individuals have different needs for resources to undertake the same activi-
ties (Nussbaum 2006, pp. 74-75).
The essential human capabilities according to Nussbaum (2006, pp. 76-77)
are as follows:
• Life.
Being able to live to the end of a human life of normal length;
not dying prematurely, or before one's life is so reduced as to be not
worth living.
• Bodily health.
Being able to have good health, including reproductive
health; to be adequately nourished; to have adequate shelter.
• Bodily integrity.
Being able to move freely from place to place; to be
secure against violent assault, including sexual assault and domestic
violence; having opportunities for sexual satisfaction and for choice
in matters of reproduction.
• Senses, imagination, and thought.
Being able to use the senses, to imag-
ine, think, and reason—and to do these things in a “truly human”
way, a way informed and cultivated by an adequate education,
including, but by no means limited to, literacy and basic mathemati-
cal and scientific training. Being able to use imagination and thought
in connection with experiencing and producing works and events
of one's own choice, religious, literary, musical, and so forth. Being
able to use one's mind in ways protected by guarantees of freedom
of expression with respect to both political and artistic speech, and
freedom of religious exercise. Being able to have pleasurable experi-
ences and to avoid nonbeneficial pain.
• Emotions.
Being able to have attachments to things and people out-
side ourselves; to love those who love and care for us, to grieve at
their absence; in general, to love, to grieve, to experience longing,
gratitude, and justified anger. Not having one's emotional develop-
ment blighted by fear and anxiety. […]
• Practical reason.
Being able to form a conception of the good and to
engage in critical reflection about the planning of one's life. […]
• Affiliation.
.
i.
Being able to live with and toward others, to recognize and show
concern for other humans, to engage in various forms of social
interaction; to be able to imagine the situation of another. […]
