"... a welcome addition to the literature." --Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences "... ideologically diverse selection of readings... "--Times Literary Supplement (London) "The essays are balanced, challenging, well-argued, and well-written. They ably and accessibly represent feminist contributions to medical ethics... " --Religious Studies Review "... fascinating... thought-provoking... " --Nursing Times "A stimulating book for those women and men (feminist and non-feminist) interested in medical ethics." --Maternal and Child Health "... landmark [event] in bioethics... " --Women & Health The aim of this volume is to show how a feminist perspective advances biomedical ethics by uncovering inconsistencies in traditional argument and by arguing for the importance of hitherto ignored factors in decision making. These essays include both theory and very specific examples that demonstrate the glaring inadequacy of mainstream medical ethics.

Numerous issues confront women's healthcare today, among them the medicalization of women's bodies, cosmetic genital surgery, violence against women, HIV, perinatal mental health disorders. This volume uniquely explores such difficult topics and others at the intersection of clinical practice, policy, and bioethics in women's health care through a feminist ethics lens. With in-depth discussions of issues in women's reproductive health, it also broadens scholarship by responding to a wider array of ethical challenges that many women experience in accessing health care. Contributions touch on many themes previously tackled by feminist ethics, but in new, contemporary ways. Some chapters expand into new fields in the bioethics literature, such as the ethical issues related to the care of Indigenous women, uninsured refugees and immigrants, women engaged in sex work, and those with HIV at different life stages and perinatal mental health disorders. Authors seek to connect theory and practice with users of the health system by including women's voices in their research. Bringing to bear their experience in active clinical practice in medicine, nursing, and ethics, the authors contemplate new conceptual approaches to important issues in women's healthcare, and make ethical practice recommendations for those grappling with these issues. Topical and up-to-date, this book provides a valuable resource for physicians, nurses, clinical ethicists, and researchers working in some of the most critical areas of women's health and applied ethics today.

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.

No other cluster of medical issues affects the genders as differently as those related to procreation—contraception, sterilization, abortion, artificial insemination, in-vitro fertilization, surrogate motherhood, and genetic screening. Yet the moral diversity among feminists has led to political fragmentation, foiling efforts to create policies that are likely to serve the interests of the largest possible number of women. In this remarkable book, Rosemarie Tong offers an approach to feminist bioethics that serves as a catalyst, bringing together varied perspectives on choice, control, and connection. Emphasizing the complexity of feminist debates, she guides feminists toward consensus in thought, cooperation in action, and a world that would have no room for domination and subordination. Tong fairly and comprehensively presents the traditions of both feminist and nonfeminist ethics and bioethics. Although feminist approaches to bioethics derive many insights from nonfeminist ethics and bioethics, Tong shows that their primary source of inspiration is feminist ethics, leading feminist bioethicists to ask the so-called woman question in order to raise women’s consciousness about the systems, structures, and relationships that oppress them. Feminist bioethicists are, naturally, committed to acting locally in the worlds of medicine and science. But their different feminist voices must also be raised at the policy table in order to make gender equity a present reality rather than a mere future possibility. Inability to define a plan that guarantees liberation for all women must not prevent feminists from offering a plan that promises to improve the welfare of many women. Otherwise, a perspective less appealing to women may fill the gap.

The aim of this book is to show how feminist perspectives can extend and advance the field of nursing ethics. It engages in the broader nursing ethics project of critiquing existing ethical frameworks as well as constructing and developing alternative understandings, concepts, and methodologies. All of the contributors draw attention to the operations of power inherent in moral relationships at individual, institutional, cultural, and socio-political levels. The early essays chart the development of feminist perspectives in the field of nursing ethics from the late 19th century to the present day and consider the impact of gender roles and gendered understandings on the moral lives of nurses, patients and families. They also consider the transformative potential of feminist perspectives to widen the scope of nursing and midwifery practices to include the social, economic, cultural and political dimensions of moral decision-making in health care settings. The second half of the book draws on feminist insights to critically discuss the role of nurses and midwives in leadership, healthcare organisations, and research as well as the provision of particular forms of care e.g. care in the home and abortion care.

The essays collected here explore the relation of feminist bioethics to mainstream bioethical thought and practice. From publisher description.

"Medical ethics has placed undue emphasis on the autonomy of patients while neglecting social contexts and responsibilities. The author proposes an ethic of caring arising from women's experience that embraces the concrete reality of patients as embodied persons. This ethic of caring is rooted in a Western spiritual tradition that believes in a God of mercy and so demands that we be merciful as well. The truly merciful heart (misericordia) is one that experiences compassion, but also knows its requirements."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved