O reconhecimento das capacidades humanas em uma sociedade decente: por um conceito jurídico de vulnerabilidade para as pessoas idosas

Abstract

This thesis focuses on the elderly in the context of the multiple vulnerabilities they experience as a result of their physical fragility, especially with regard to care related to their health, which is the main reason for their vulnerability. The possibilities of gauging a legal concept of vulnerability were worked out, based on the theories formulated by Axel Honneth, Martha Nussbaum and Avishai Margalit, specifically regarding the concepts of struggle for recognition, capabilities, disgust and decent society. The vulnerability of the elderly is something multifactorial, which can be aggravated by intrinsic and extrinsic issues. Among the factors, issues related to social integration, capabilities, resilience, as well as legal factors, addressed by international human rights law. The vulnerability of the elderly person has been defined based on biological criteria or, only as a result of the passage of time, however, it shows that it has factors in common with other vulnerable populations. The thesis is defended that it is not enough to just “add” one vulnerability to another, because, as a result of the competition of several vulnerating factors, it cannot be understood that the elderly person is vulnerable simply because they are.