Returning to the Neighbor from Fragility
Who is the sick person? Is it someone strange who has come from another world to bring us bad news? This text shows how illness is a close state of human life, not strange or distant, which confronts us with the vulnerability of life as a fundamental aspect of the human condition. In illness, there is the possibility of getting closer to the other, to care and be cared for, to welcome and be welcomed. Given the above, in illness, it is possible to be with others from the guarantee of freedom and the responsibility that this entails. In this sense, doctors and philosophers, as they have taken on the task of caring, must assume with responsibility the accompaniment and attention of people overwhelmed by illness and the harshness of existence.