Feminism & Bioethics: Beyond Reproduction

Bioethics has paid surprisingly little attention to the special problems faced by women and to feminist analyses of current health care issues other than reproduction. Feminism & Bioethics: Beyond Reproduction aims to counterbalance this one-sided approach. A breakthrough volume of original essays authored by leading figures in bioethics and feminist theory, it moves beyond reproduction and nursing, taking bioethics into new territory. The book starts with an investigation of the relationship between feminism and bioethics and introduces different approaches to the problem. Chapters stress the importance of liberal feminism which prefers feminist over feminine analysis, integrate the experience of women of color, draw from the women's self-help movement, and apply feminist standpoint theory. In the second part of the book, contributors view various bioethical problems from a feminist perspective: euthanasia, AIDS, the definition of health, doctor-patient communication, the Human Genome Project, the conduct of biomedical research, and health care reform. They examine the pros and cons of the application of gender and feminism to bioethics. This provocative volume is bound to change and broaden the way bioethicists, students, patients, and the public consider bioethical issues.

Susan M. Wolf is at University of Minnesota Law School.