Caring and the Law

Abstract

Jonathan Herring Oxford, United Kingdom and Portland, OR: Hart Publishing, 2013, 352 pp., $60.00 (softcover).Caregiving is a central, reliable theme in gerontology. The need for care, in various forms and duration, is experienced by dif- ferent people at different stages of the life cycle and under different and constantly changing circumstances. Nonetheless, the presence of care need by somebody and the reciprocating provision of caring on the part of others make up a universal aspect of social life. The process of caring might be characterized in a number of ways. The dynamic could be considered the con- tractual sale of a service, the voluntary or psychologically compelled fulfillment of a familial obligation, a legally incentiv- ized transaction, or the manifestation of a loving, emotionally and morally based relationship. However caring is classified, it takes place within a particular legal envi- ronment, specific in place and time, and both empowers and constrains the whole process. That social process and its accom- panying effects on the involved partici- pants, in turn, exert an important influence on the continual evolution of the pertinent law. Thus, the intersection of caring and the law is a fit topic for an in-depth, book- length analysis.Caring and the Law provides an attempt at such an analysis. Authored by Oxford University Professor of Law Jonathan Herring, this combination piece of well- referenced scholarship and political advo- cacy explores the rich caring/law/social policy intersection within a British context. American law and policy are not discussed specifically, but Herring's UK-centric obser- vations will be interesting and informative to gerontologists, social policy analysts and practitioners, and legal scholars in the United States wishing to learn from cross- cultural comparisons. Health and human services professionals and those who study the ethical tensions with which they deal will find the chapters on State Support of Care (Chapter 4), Caring and Medical Law (Chapter 5), Family Law and Caring (Chapter 6), and Caring and Abuse (Chap- ter 8) to be the most valuable sources of intellectual stimulation.In terms of its overriding theme, this volume has much in common with the pointed feminist critique of caregiving in the United States leveled by Holstein, Parks, and Waymack (2011) a few years ago. Specifically, Herring's primary indict- ment is that British society (just as is true in Holstein et al.'s [2011] U.S. society) consciously and systematically oppresses its caregivers, most of whom are-and not by chance-women. They claim that women in their questionably voluntary role as chief managers and direct providers of care to those in need are socially undervalued, inadequately compensated, and woefully poorly supported physically and emotion- ally. This statement of position is especially timely in light of current caustic public discussions about the great difficulty of modern females (and males, too, for that matter; Dorment, 2013; Weber, 2013) suc- cessfully "having it all" in terms of an ideal work-life balance (Sandberg, 2013).To remedy this societal shortcoming, according to the author, we must move away from the dominant but wrongheaded philosophical picture of caregiving largely as a matter between private individuals driven by a sense of moral responsibil- ity, instead recognizing that, paralleling Clinton's (1996) famous line about child raising, "it takes a government" to equi- tably allocate, redistribute, and supervise appropriate financial and human resources devoted to caregiving. …