Hostname: page-component-8678677fb7-h96qj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-10-13T14:02:55.487Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Abortion Through a Feminist Ethics Lens*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 April 2010

Susan Sherwin
Susan Sherwin
Affiliation:
Dalhousie University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Abortion has long been a central issue in the arena of applied ethics, but, the distinctive analysis of feminist ethics is generally overlooked in most philosophic discussions. Authors and readers commonly presume a familiarity with the feminist position and equate it with liberal defences of women's right to choose abortion, but, in fact, feminist ethics yields a different analysis of the moral questions surrounding abortion than that usually offered by the more familiar liberal defenders of abortion rights. Most feminists can agree with some of the conclusions that arise from certain non-feminist arguments on abortion, but they often disagree about the way the issues are formulated and the sorts of reasons that are invoked in the mainstream literature.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review / Revue canadienne de philosophie , Volume 30 , Issue 3: Applied Ethics , Summer 1991 , pp. 327 - 342
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Philosophical Association 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Addelson, Kathryn Pyne 1987 “Moral Passages.” In Women and Moral Theory. Edited by Kittay, Eva Feder and Meyers, Diana T.. Totowa, NJ: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Baier, Annette 1985 Postures of the Mind: Essays on Mind and Morals. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Callahan, Sidney 1987 “A Pro-life Feminist Makes Her Case.” Utne Reader (March/April): 104–14.Google Scholar
CARAL/Halifax 1990 Telling Our Stories: Abortion Stories from Nova Scotia. Halifax: CARAL/Halifax (Canadian Abortion Rights Action League).Google Scholar
Daly, Mary 1973 Beyond God the Father: Toward a Philosophy of Women's Liberation. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Diamond, Irene, and Quinby, Lee 1988 “American Feminism and the Language of Control.” In Feminism & Foucault: Reflections on Resistance. Edited by Diamond, Irene and Quinby, Lee. Boston: Northeastern University Press.Google Scholar
Eisenstein, Zillah R. 1988 The Female Body and the Law. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Hoagland, Sara Lucia 1988 Lesbian Ethics: Toward New Value. Palo Alto, CA: Institute of Lesbian Studies.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lange, Lynda 1983 “Woman is Not a Rational Animal: On Aristotle's Biology of Reproduction.” In Discovering Reality: Feminist Perspectives on Epistemology, Metaphysics, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science. Edited by Harding, Sandra and Hintickka, Merill B.. Dordrecht, Holland: D. Reidel.Google Scholar
Lerner, Gerda 1986 The Creation of Patriarchy. New York: Oxford.Google Scholar
Luker, Kristin 1984 Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
MacKinnon, Catherine 1989 Toward a Feminist Theory of the State. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
McDonnell, Kathleen 1984 Not an Easy Choice: A Feminist Re-examines Abortion. Toronto: The Women's Press.Google Scholar
McLaren, Angus, and McLaren, Arlene Tigar 1986 The Bedroom and the State: The Changing Practices and Politics of Contraception and Abortion in Canada, 1880–1980. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart.Google Scholar
Morgan, Kathryn Pauly 1987 “Women and Moral Madness.” In Science, Morality and Feminist Theory. Edited by Hanen, Marsha and Nielsen, Kai. Canadian Journal of Philosophy, Supplementary Volume 13: 201–26.Google Scholar
Murphy, Julien S. 1989 “Should Pregnancies Be Sustained in Brain-dead Women?: A Philosophical Discussion of Postmortem Pregnancy.” In Healing Technology: Feminist Perspectives. Edited by Ratcliff, Kathryn Srother et al. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Overall, Christine 1987 Ethics and Human Reproduction: A Feminist Analysis. Winchester, MA: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Petchesky, Rosalind Pollack 1980 “Reproductive Freedom: Beyond ‘A Woman's Right to Choose.’” In Women: Sex and Sexuality. Edited by Stimpson, Catharine R. and Person, Ethel Spector. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Petchesky, Rosalind Pollack 1984 Abortion and Woman's Choice: The State, Sexuality, and Reproductive Freedom. Boston: Northeastern University Press.Google Scholar
Sumner, L. W. 1981 Abortion and Moral Theory. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomson, Judith Jarvis 1971 “A Defense of Abortion.” Philosophy and Public Affairs, 1: 47–66.Google Scholar
Tooley, Michael 1972 “Abortion and Infanticide.” Philosophy and Public Affairs, 2, 1 (Fall): 37–65.Google Scholar
Van Wagner, Vicki, and Lee, Bob 1989 “Principles into Practice: An Activist Vision of Feminist Reproductive Health Care.” In The Future of Human Reproduction. Edited by Overall, Christine. Toronto: The Women's Press.Google Scholar
Warren, Mary Anne 1973 “On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion.” The Monist, 57: 43–61.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Warren, Mary Anne 1989 “The Moral Significance of Birth.” Hypatia, 4, 2 (Summer): 46–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitbeck, Carolyn 1973 “Theories of Sex Difference.” The Philosophical Forum, 5, 1–2 (Fall/Winter 1973–1974): 54–80.Google Scholar