Compassionate Respect: A Feminist Approach to Medical Ethics and Other Questions (Madeleva Lecture in Spirituality)

This lecture addresses current tensions in medical ethics as it has developed in the past thirty years. Debates now rage about the importance of principles versus personal character, rights versus responsibilities, and individual autonomy versus concerns for the well being of patients. Moreover, the public nature of medical ethical problems, which are often addressed in the secular sphere, has tended to obscure the role of religious ethics within medical ethics. Margaret Farley proposes a new approach to all of these issues, an approach that takes account of women's experience, feminist ethics, and the potential contributions of religious traditions to problems encountered in the medical context. She includes considerations of particular issues such as decisions for death and requirements of justice in the effective worldwide distribution of medical care. †

Margaret A. Farley, the Gilbert L. Stark Chair in Christian Ethics at Yale University Divinity School, is the author or editor of five books and more than 75 articles and book chapters on ethical methodology, feminist ethics, medical ethics, sexual ethics, social ethics, historical theological ethics, and ethics and spirituality. She is the recipient of eight honorary degrees and a variety of fellowships and awards, including the John Courtney Murray Award for Excellence in Theology. She is a past president of both the Society of Christian Ethics and the Catholic Theological Society of America.