The article explores two questions: what is feminist bioethics, and how
different it is from standard bioethics. Development of feminist bioethics,
it is argued, began as a response to standard bioethics, challenging its
background values, and philosophical perspectives. The most important
contribution of feminist bioethics has been its re-examination of the basic
conceptual underpinnings of mainstream bioethics, including the concepts of
?universality?, ?autonomy?, and ?trust?. Particularly important for feminists
has been the concept of autonomy. They challenge the old liberal notion of
autonomy that treats individuals as separate social units and argue that
autonomy is established through relations. Relational autonomy assumes that
identities and values are developed through relationships with others and
that the choices one makes are shaped by specific social and historical
contexts. Neither relational autonomy, nor feminist bioethics, however,
represents a single, unified perspective. There are, actually, as many
feminist bioethics as there are feminisms-liberal, cultural, radical,
postmodern etc. Their different ontological, epistemological and political
underpinnings shape their respective approaches to bioethical issues at hand.
Still what they all have in common is interest in social justice-feminists
explore mainstream bioethics and reproductive technologies in order to
establish whether they support or impede gender and overall social justice
and equality. Feminist bioethics thus brings a significant improvement to
standard bioethics.
On feminist engagements with bioethics
