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850Taking a Feminist Relational Perspective on ConscienceIn Jocelyn Downie & Jennifer Lewellyn (eds.), Being Relational: Reflections on Relational Theory and Health Law and Policy, University of British Columbia Press. pp. 161-181. 2011.One understanding of conscience dominates bioethical discussion about conscience. On this view, to have a conscience is to be compelled to act in accordance with one’s own moral values for the sake of one’s “integrity,” where integrity is understood as inner or psychological unity. Conscience is deemed valuable because it promotes this quality. In this paper, I describe the dominant view, attempt to show that it is flawed, and sketch a positive alternative to it. In my opinion, conscience often …Read more
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234Relational Autonomy, Self-Trust, and Health Care for Patients Who Are OppressedIn Catriona Mackenzie & Natalie Stoljar (eds.), Relational Autonomy: Feminist Perspectives on Autonomy, Agency, and the Social Self, Oxford University Press. 2000.
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405Feminists on the Inalienability of Human EmbryosHypatia 21 (1): 1-14. 2006.The feminist literature against the commodification of embryos in human embryo research includes an argument to the effect that embryos are “intimately connected” to persons, or morally inalienable from them. We explore why embryos might be inalienable to persons and why feminists might find this view appealing. But, ultimately, as feminists, we reject this view because it is inconsistent with full respect for women's reproductive autonomy and with a feminist conception of persons as relational,…Read more
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98Donating Fresh Versus Frozen Embryos to Stem Cell Research: In Whose Interests?Bioethics 21 (9). 2007.Some stem cell researchers believe that it is easier to derive human embryonic stem cells from fresh rather than frozen embryos and they have had in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinicians invite their infertility patients to donate their fresh embryos for research use. These embryos include those that are deemed 'suitable for transfer' (i.e. to the woman's uterus) and those deemed unsuitable in this regard. This paper focuses on fresh embryos deemed suitable for transfer - hereafter 'fresh embryos…Read more
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2434Not For the Faint of Heart: Assessing the Status Quo on Adoption and Parental LicensingIn Francoise Baylis & Carolyn McLeod (eds.), Family Making: Contemporary Ethical Challenges, Oxford University Press. pp. 151-167. 2014.The process of adopting a child is “not for the faint of heart.” This is what we were told the first time we, as a couple, began this process. Part of the challenge lies in fulfilling the licensing requirements for adoption, which, beyond the usual home study, can include mandatory participation in parenting classes. The question naturally arises for many people who are subjected to these requirements whether they are morally justified. We tackle this question in this paper. In our view, while s…Read more
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234Self-Trust and Reproductive AutonomyMIT Press. 2002.The power of new medical technologies, the cultural authority of physicians, and the gendered power dynamics of many patient-physician relationships can all inhibit women's reproductive freedom. Often these factors interfere with women's ability to trust themselves to choose and act in ways that are consistent with their own goals and values. In this book Carolyn McLeod introduces to the reproductive ethics literature the idea that in reproductive health care women's self-trust can be undermined…Read more
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38Conscientious Autonomy: What Patients Do vs. What Is Done to Them (review)Hastings Center Report 35 (5): 5. 2005.Letter to editor of the Hastings Center Report on R. Kukla’s “Conscientious Autonomy: Displacing Decisions in Health Care” (HCR 35(2), 2005: 34-44).
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65Integrity and Self-ProtectionJournal of Social Philosophy 35 (2). 2004.Self-protection seems to be negatively correlated with integrity on the standard conception of that virtue. To be self-protective is to lose some of our integrity. In this paper, I pursue the somewhat unlikely claim that a certain amount of self-protection is consistent with integrity and is even required by it in many circumstances.
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50“Embryo Autonomy?” What About the Autonomy of Infertility Patients? (review)American Journal of Bioethics 5 (6). 2005.A review of S. M. Liao's "Rescuing human embryonic stem cell research: The blastocyst transfer method," American Journal of Bioethics 5(6), 2005: 8:16.
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407An Institutional Solution to Conflicts of Conscience in Medicine (review)Hastings Center Report 40 (6): 41-42. 2010.A review of Holly Fernandez Lynch's book Conflicts of Conscience in Medicine (MIT Press, 2008).
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68Understanding TrustIn Francoise Baylis, Jocelyn Downie, Barry Hoffmaster & Susan Sherwin (eds.), Health Care Ethics in Canada, Harcourt Brace. pp. 186--92. 2004.
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145The Stem Cell Debate Continues: The Buying and Selling of Eggs for ResearchJournal of Medical Ethics 33 (12): 726-731. 2007.Now that stem cell scientists are clamouring for human eggs for cloning-based stem cell research, there is vigorous debate about the ethics of paying women for their eggs. Generally speaking, some claim that women should be paid a fair wage for their reproductive labour or tissues, while others argue against the further commodification of reproductive labour or tissues and worry about voluntariness among potential egg providers. Siding mainly with those who believe that women should be financial…Read more
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56Rich Discussion About Reproductive AutonomyBioethics 23 (1). 2008.An introduction to a special issue of Bioethics edited by McLeod and called Understanding and Protecting Reproductive Autonomy.
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508Harm or Mere Inconvenience? Denying Women Emergency ContraceptionHypatia 25 (1): 11-30. 2010.This paper addresses the likely impact on women of being denied emergency contraception (EC) by pharmacists who conscientiously refuse to provide it. A common view—defended by Elizabeth Fenton and Loren Lomasky, among others—is that these refusals inconvenience rather than harm women so long as the women can easily get EC somewhere else nearby. I argue from a feminist perspective that the refusals harm women even when they can easily get EC somewhere else nearby.
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18Does Gift Language Elevate Devalued Forms of Motherhood? (review)Medical Humanities Review 15 (1): 2001. 2001.A review of Transformative Motherhood: On Giving and Getting in a Consumer Culture, edited by L. Layne (NYU Press, 1999).
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437Moving Forward with a Clear Conscience: A Model Conscientious Objection Policy for Canadian Colleges of Physicians and SurgeonsHealth Law Review 21 (3): 28-32. 2013.A model policy for conscientious objection in medicine.
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25My Gender Made Me Do it: Gender Identities and the Genetics of AlcoholismThe Bioethics Examiner 4 (1). 2000.
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32Let Conscience Be Their Guide? Conscientious Refusals in Health CareBioethics 28 (1). 2013.The introduction to a special issue of the journal Bioethics that we edited.
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23A Review of A Feminist I: Reflections from Academia, by Christine Overall (review)Resources for Feminist Research 29 (1/2): 141-144. 2001.
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18A Review of Genes, Women, Equality, by Mary Briody Mahowald (review)International Network on Feminist Approaches to Bioethics Newsletter 8 (1): 13-14. 2000.
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17A Review of Diagnosis Difference: The Moral Authority of Medicine, by Abby Wilkerson (review)Ethics 111 (3): 670. 2001.
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494Can a Right to Reproduce Justify the Status Quo on Parental Licensing?In Richard Vernon, Sarah Hannan & Samantha Brennan (eds.), Permissible Progeny: The Morality of Procreation and Parenting, Oxford University Press. pp. 184-207. 2015.The status quo on parental licensing in most Western jurisdictions is that licensing is required in the case of adoption but not in the case of assisted or unassisted biological reproduction. To have a child via adoption, one must fulfill licensing requirements, which, beyond the usual home study, can include mandatory participation in parenting classes. One is exempt from these requirements, however, if one has a child via biological reproduction, including assisted reproduction involving donor…Read more
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740Referral in the Wake of Conscientious Objection to AbortionHypatia 23 (4). 2008.Currently, the preferred accommodation for conscientious objection to abortion in medicine is to allow the objector to refuse to accede to the patient’s request so long as the objector refers the patient to a physician who performs abortions. The referral part of this arrangement is controversial, however. Pro-life advocates claim that referrals make objectors complicit in the performance of acts that they, the objectors, find morally offensive. McLeod argues that the referral requirement is jus…Read more
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155How to Distinguish Autonomy from IntegrityCanadian Journal of Philosophy 35 (1). 2005.The article aims to distinguish autonomy from integrity. I claim that integrity is different from a form of autonomy at least, but that integrity and autonomy overlap considerably. Integrity itself is a form of autonomy: what ethicists call moral autonomy. (They tend to distinguish between personal and moral autonomy.) Autonomy is the genus, one might say, with integrity (i.e., moral autonomy) and personal autonomy being species of it.
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17Dependency Relations as a Starting Point for Justice (review)Hastings Center Report 30 (5): 44-45. 2000.A review of Eva Kittay's Love's Labor: Essays on Women, Equality, and Dependency (Routledge, 1999).
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32Authenticity and the Hijacked BrainAmerican Journal of Bioethics 2 (2): 62-63. 2002.A review of Louis Charland's paper, "Cynthia's Dilemma: Consenting to Heroin Prescription," American Journal of Bioethics 2(2), 2002: 37-47.
London, Ontario, Canada
Areas of Specialization
Feminist Philosophy |
Applied Ethics |
Moral Psychology |
Trust |
Reproductive Ethics |