Feminist Perspectives in Medical Ethics by Helen B Holmes

Feminist Perspectives in Medical Ethics by Helen B Holmes

The fields of medical ethics and women's studies have experienced unprecedented growth during the last twenty years. Along with the rapid pace of development in medicine and biology and changes in social expectations, moral quandaries about the body and social practices involving it have multiplied. Philosophers are uniquely situated to attempt to clarify and resolve these questions. Until recently, however, the subdiscipline of biomedical ethics has reflected mainstream scholars' lack of interest in gender as a category of analysis. The aim of this volume is to show how a feminist perspective advances biomedical ethics. Writing at the forefront of feminist medical ethics, the authors uncover inconsistencies in traditional arguments and argue for the importance of hitherto ignored factors in decision making. The essays include both theory and very specific examples that demonstrate the glaring inadequacy of mainstream medical ethics. This book makes clear the urgent need to correct gender bias and to attend to women's concerns. The reader will come to insist that the values of women are basic to any search for responsible, fair assessment of moral issues in medicine. The contributors are Nora Kizer Bell, Jeannine Ross Boyer, Joan C. Callahan, John C. Fletcher, Sara T. Fry, Helen Bequaert Holmes, Sara Ann Ketchum, James W. Knight, Rosalind Ekman Ladd, Judith Lorber, Heidi M. Malm, Don Marquis, Julien Murphy, Hilde Lindemann Nelson, James Lindemann Nelson, Kelly Oliver, Laura M. Purdy, Sue V. Rosser, Susan Sherwin, Betty A. Sichel, Mary Anne Warren, Virginia L. Warren, Susan Wendell, and Dorothy C. Wertz.

Holmes, Helen B.: - Helen Bequaert Holmes is an independent scholar with a Ph.D. in genetics. She co-edited Birth Control and Controlling Birth and Feminist Perspectives on Medical Ethics, a book based from two special issues of the journal Hypatia.