Progress and vulnerability: the science that cures and afflicts

Abstract

One of the distinctive characteristics of the Anthropocene, the first geological era defined by the impact of human action and not by geological evidence, takes the form of a numerical datum: there are eight million children all over the world who born every year with a serious birth defect. The contribution aims to explore how the scientific medical progress cannot suffice to compensate for the disadvantage (physical, sensory, psychic disabilities) these fragile children have to face throughout their existence: indeed, only a pedagogical gaze allows us to understand how just in those kind battles we can learn to rediscover and respect the vulnerability of a planet, a community, a person.