Bioethics tackles the most vexing problems in health care and the biological sciences: from reproductive technologies to euthanasia, the AIDS epidemic, mapping the human genome, human subjects research, and health care reform. Yet surprisingly little attention has been paid to the special problems faced by women and to feminist analyses of current health care issues other than reproduction. This breakthrough volume of original essays authored by leading figures in bioethics and feminist theory moves beyond the areas of 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. These chapters stress the importance of liberal feminism that prefers feminist over feminine analysis, integrates the experience of women of color, draws from the women's self-help movement, and uses the feminist stand-point theory. In the second part of the book, the authors apply the feminist perspective to different bioethics problems: euthanasia, AIDS, the definition of health, doctor-patient communication, the Human Genome Project, the conduct of biomedical research, and health care reform. They demonstrate the gain and benefit that results when bioethics pays attention to gender and feminism. With a substantive introduction by Professor Susan Wolf, Associate Professor of Law and Medicine at the University of Minnesota, this volume will change the way bioethicists, students, patients, and the public think about these profoundly challenging problems.

Review

"Powerful anthology of bioethical writings brings together feminist critiques of a wide range of areas sorely in nned of power-based and inclusionary analyses. Because feminist bioethical literature is so diverse and dispersed in the literature, Wolf has served the bioethics community well by collecting so many ideas in one place."-- Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics

About the Author

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