Nurturing compassion through care-giving and care-receiving: the changing moral economy of AIDs in China

• Published in: Anthropology & medicine Vol. 21; no. 1; pp. 71 - 86
• Main Authors: Kuah-Pearce, Khun Eng, Guiheux, Gilles
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Routledge 01.01.2014; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: 21st century; Acquired immune deficiency syndrome; Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome - psychology; Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome - therapy; Adult; AIDS; Anthropology, Medical; Attitudes; Borders; Capital; care-giving; care-receiving; Case studies; China; Compassion; Delivery of Health Care - ethics; Delivery of Health Care - methods; Delivery of Health Care - organization & administration; Disadvantaged; Economics; Empathy; Ethics; Ethnographic research; Female; Foreign aid; HIV; HIV victims; Human immunodeficiency virus; Humans; innovative and free Aids/HIV treatment; Male; Medical treatment; Middle Aged; Minority groups; Moral aspects; Moral economy; Morality; Morals; Médecins Sans Frontières; Nanning; NGOs; Non-governmental organizations; Nongovernmental Organizations; Organizations, Nonprofit - ethics; Organizations, Nonprofit - organization & administration; Patients; Peoples Republic of China; Social Stigma; Socialist states; Suffering; Sympathy; Testimony; Victims; China; HIV victims; moral economy; care-giving; care-receiving; innovative and free Aids/HIV treatment
• ISSN: 1364-8470; 1469-2910; 1469-2910
• DOI: 10.1080/13648470.2014.881461

Based on the case study of an Aids clinic operated in Nanning by MSF, this paper looks at how one international NGO, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF, or Doctors Without Borders), deals with the HIV-carrier patients in Nanning, the capital of Guangxi province in China. It explores the process of care-giving to the HIV patients by MSF employees (both foreign and local) and how the patients react to the 'care-receiving' provided by this foreign NGO. This is especially pertinent in China today as HIV-patients are the victims of discriminating policies and are still very much discriminated by the general population. MSF, viewed by the victims as a foreign NGO, is regarded as an organization seen as promoting a changing and compassionate attitude toward AIDs patients through their anonymous and non-discriminating practices. Through the practices and the discourse of MSF workers and the testimonies of the patients, this paper looks at how the moral economy of AIDs is evolving from a repressive and discriminative attitude towards the compassionate attention to individual suffering. As such, MSF, through its actions, is seen as one of the agents promoting attitudinal changes toward disadvantaged groups and is facilitating the emergence of an emotional and compassionate subject.