Moreel beraad en goede zorg voor ouderen veronderstellen én versterken elkaar

Caring is inherently a moral practice. Those who are involved in the care for the elderly give meaning to their views on good (organisation of) care, implicitly or explicitly. The meaning of good care is directly attached to a specific context and a specific moment; it is neither fixed nor static. In this paper, good care is understood as dialogic: the meaning of good care arises out of and by means of dialogue between the stakeholders. Ethics can play a crucial role in shaping this dialogue. Unfortunately, many people see ethics primarily as a discipline which develops abstract moral theories and generate ethicists for formal ethics committees in order to prescribe protocols and guidelines. Dialogical ethics, with its theoretical bases in pragmatic hermeneutics, is opposed to this view of ethics. Moral Case Deliberation is a good example of dialogical ethics in which the ethicist applies various conversation methods in order to support health care professionals to reflect on their moral questions. Starting point is the moral expertise of the health care professionals themselves; the ethicist functions as a facilitator. Moral Case Deliberation contributes both to reflect as to shape good care (executed by good professionals within a good health care organisation). This paper describes the meaning of a Moral Case Deliberation and a Moral Deliberation Project. Additionally, it reflects on the underlying view on dialogical ethics, the justification of Moral Deliberation and some possible goals of Moral Deliberation. With this paper, the authors argue that Moral Case Deliberation both presupposes and strengthens good elderly care.