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8 - Women and genetic technologies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Celia Deane-Drummond
Affiliation:
University of Chester
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Summary

While women may, like men, be involved in the practice of genetic science, advances in genetics have a differential impact on women. The extent to which women have been excluded from genetic science, alongside other sciences, is not the central concern of this chapter. Rather, its purpose is to tease out feminist ethical debates about new reproductive technologies in relation to their coherence or otherwise with the tradition of practical wisdom, justice and natural law that I have elaborated elsewhere. Feminist standpoints on bioethics are far more diverse than is commonly assumed, ranging across the political spectrum. There are, nonetheless, some overall trends in their approach that are worth noting. These are, broadly: (a) an emphasis on an ideal of care, rather than that which stresses rationality; (b) a stress on interpersonal relationships rather than autonomy; and (c) communitarian responsibility rather than individual rights. This picture is clouded somewhat by some feminists who seek to stress justice for women in the context of new reproductive technologies, and others who are equally comfortable with the language of rights for women and other disadvantaged groups, including embryos. In all cases, nonetheless, the intention is similar, namely to uncover those social and philosophical assumptions that have served to reinforce patriarchal and sexist elements in society, and the extent to which these pervade new reproductive technologies that are now on offer.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2005

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