 Although care is a simple and widely invoked word, many feminist theorists have invested it with a particular meaning as it applies to ethics. The original motivation for developing care ethics was an acknowledgment that traditional forms of morality, in particular principle-based and consequence-based ethics, did not adequately address the richness of the human condition. These approaches bracket out emotions, relationships, temporal considerations, reciprocity, and creativity to focus on immediate adjudication of moral conflicts. Accordingly, the use of rules or consequences can become a reductionist and formulaic response resulting in shortsighted answers to complex and systemic issues. For care ethicists, principles can be useful, but a concern for interpersonal connection tempers them. Principles and consequences can be important in moral deliberation, but care theorists seek a more robust and complex sense of morality that cannot ignore the context and people involved. For example, the claim that people who spray-paint graffiti on a building ought to be punished because they have damaged someone else’s property (rule/principle violation) will likely receive widespread assent. Care ethicists do not necessarily deny such an assertion, but they want to know more. The person doing the spray-painting is a human being whose motivations and circumstances may reveal other variables not sufficiently addressed by the mere recognition of rule violations. Systemic issues involving social opportunities, discrimination, or lack of voice may have contributed to this behavior. Care ethicists shift the moral focus from abstract individuals and their actions to concrete, situated people with feelings, friends, and dreams—persons who can be cared about. Care ethics demands effort, experience, knowledge, imagination, and empathy to effectively understand the totality of the moral context. The result is not an exoneration of personal responsibility but a richer understanding of the human condition where we are all actors and acted upon.