| Gender and ethics committees: where's the 'different voice'? | |
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MedLine Citation:
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PMID: 17039630 Owner: KIE Status: MEDLINE |
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
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Prominent international and national ethics commissions such as the UNESCO International Bioethics Committee rarely achieve anything remotely resembling gender equality, although local research and ethics committees are somewhat more egalitarian. Under-representation of women is particularly troubling when the subject matter of modern bioethics so disproportionately concerns women's bodies, and when such committees claim to derive 'universal' standards. Are women missing from many ethics committees because of relatively straightforward, if discriminatory, demographic factors? Or are the methods of analysis and styles of ethics to which these bodies are committed somehow 'anti-female'? It has been argued, for example, that there is a 'different voice' in ethical reasoning, not confined to women but more representative of female experience. Similarly, some feminist writers, such as Evelyn Fox Keller and Donna Haraway, have asked difficult epistemological questions about the dominant 'masculine paradigm' in science. Perhaps the dominant paradigm in ethics committee deliberation is similarly gendered? This article provides a preliminary survey of women's representation on ethics committees in eastern and western Europe, a critical analysis of the supposed 'masculinism' of the principlist approach, and a case example in which a 'different voice' did indeed make a difference. |
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Authors:
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Donna Dickenson |
Publication Detail:
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Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't |
Journal Detail:
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Title: Bioethics Volume: 20 ISSN: 0269-9702 ISO Abbreviation: Bioethics Publication Date: 2006 Jun |
Date Detail:
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Created Date: 2006-10-13 Completed Date: 2006-12-06 Revised Date: - |
Medline Journal Info:
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Nlm Unique ID: 8704792 Medline TA: Bioethics Country: England |
Other Details:
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Languages: eng Pagination: 115-24 Citation Subset: E |
Affiliation:
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Birkbeck, University of London, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, UK. d.dickenson@bbk.ac.uk |
Export Citation:
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| MeSH Terms | |
Descriptor/Qualifier:
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Advisory Committees
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organization & administration* Bioethics Committee Membership* Data Collection Empathy Ethics Committees / organization & administration* Europe Female Feminism Hand / transplantation Humans Internationality Male Medicine Personal Autonomy Personality Development Principle-Based Ethics Science Sex Factors Women* |
From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine
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