What Does Vulnerability Mean? Vulnerability Does Not Mean Much for Our Contemporary Morality. It is Antithetical to Our Emphasis on Individualism and Rationality; It Requires That We Attend to the Body and to Our Feelings. Yet Only by Recognizing the Depth and Breadth of Our Vulnerability can We Affirm Our Humanity (Essay‪)‬

Vulnerability is one of those general notions we bandy about confidently but carelessly, assuming that we know what it means and that it means the same thing for everybody. Were we challenged to explain it, though, we might admit to some unclarity and puzzlement. What does vulnerability actually mean? A dictionary provides multiple definitions. One meaning of "vulnerable" is to be susceptible to something, a bad something naturally, such as disease or infection. People living in a war-torn country where the water and sewer systems have been destroyed are, for example, vulnerable to contracting malaria. A second meaning of "vulnerable" is to be capable of being physically or emotionally wounded. A child born with a physical or mental handicap, for instance, could be devastated by the unceasing jeers and taunts of brutal schoolmates. A third meaning of "vulnerable" is to be capable of being persuaded or tempted. A young woman burdened by university debt might be enticed, for example, to reply to an advertisement that offers substantial remuneration for egg donation. And a fourth meaning is to be liable to increased penalties, as any bridge player whose team has won a game in a rubber knows. The real meaning of vulnerability is richer than these sketchy definitions, however. To understand it, we must appreciate what it means to live with vulnerability. People who are old, particularly those who reside in nursing homes or other long-term care facilities, are vulnerable in many ways. What does vulnerability mean for them?