in which the decision maker determines what obligations he or she has and responds consequently (“What obligation, if any, do I have for this person?”). By contrast, in responsibility based
ethics, the relationship with others is the starting point. According to Tronto (1993), the ethic of care
involves developing “a habit of care” (p. 127). The nurse would ask himself or herself how to best meet the caring responsibility. Third, Gastmans (2006) and Little (1998) sought to answer the question, “What is the best way to care for this patient at this time?” Both did not consider the ethics of care as a theory, but as a moral orientation from which action emanates. Such critics of the ethics of care see care as a necessary perspective for moral sensitivity and moral responses, but they believe other tools are necessary for moral problem solving. Some of these tools can be found in Beauchamp and Childress (2009) or in Tronto’s (1993) four elements that will be discussed later. Some individuals suffer from a moral blindness and are not moved by the suffering of others to take action. For some, moral vision exists but it is not as developed. However, a care orientation is fundamental to the nurse patient relationship and the nursing profession itself (Edwards, 2009; Gastmans, 2006). According to the Code of Ethics for Nurses, “The measures nurses take to care for the patient enables the patient to live with as much physical, emotional, social, and spiritual well-being as possible” (American Nurses Association [ANA] 2001, p. 7)