In the previous two chapters, I considered what it means to be responsible for and to another person, especially for and to my patient, my child, and a stranger. In this final chapter I want to examine what it might mean to take responsibility for a situation, and indeed to take responsibility for one's future. I have in mind what the individual himself considers a permanently adverse situation. Whether or not the situation is permanent, or turns out to be temporary, is beside the point: it is very much the person's viewpoint that matters here, and the rest of his life that he believes will be spent in this adverse situation. I want to argue that there is a kind of taking responsibility which is akin to love, in a sense I shall be careful to define.

Let me start with a couple of examples of permanent adversity:

(1) The innocent prisoner. A middle-aged man is sentenced to life in prison for a murder he did not commit. He arrives in the prison, is shown to his cell. There is a bunk with a dirty blanket, a toilet and sink, a table and chair. There is a small window, which he can barely reach with his outstretched hand. There is the heavy door with the spy-hole. “This”, the man says to himself, “will be my home. For the rest of my life.”