What does it mean to treat someone ethically, in a clinical situation of dying? How do we recognize the suffering of others especially when one is unable to express himself? Previous academic discussion on the treatment of frail, aging, or dying body, especially in institutional settings, have centered around the idea of social death[Gustafson 1972] or mortification of ‘person’[Goffman 1961]. These studies, by examining how the frail and dying are denied of their dignity as persons, have sought to set political agenda for a more just and ethical treatment of these people, based on the normative discussion of “person.”　On the other hand, a glimpse at end-of-life care at an institution in Sri Lanka provides a quite different version of the ‘ethical’ in encountering dying other, which shall be called here ‘ethics of vulnerability.’ This paper describes how the care practitioners’ engagement with dying resident brings about the disclosure of their own vulnerability, thus rendering the relationship between the two highly moral. By doing so, I try to critically challenge the conventional way of framing the issues related to the care of the frail and dying.

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