On Caring Acts and Technological Mediation Processes

In this paper, I explore whether caring acts can be properly understood through technological mediation, as seen in telehealth and telemedicine. It aims to challenge the reduction of such acts to instrumental criteria and exclusively utilitarian ethical principles. I will determine whether the relational dimension between caregiver and care receiver, which is fundamental in caring acts according to the ethics of care, remains unaltered in technologically mediated acts, or if these acts can entirely supplant it. In conceptual terms, the paper will emphasize the concepts of “relation” as the core of caring acts and “mediation” as the framework for understanding the nature of technology.