PHIL 4.01 Feminist Perspectives on Reproductive Ethics

This class focuses on ethical issues concerning human reproduction.  Some of these issues are familiar: Is abortion moral?  Is sex-selection ethical?  Other issues may be less familiar:  Does prenatal testing express a negative message about living with disability?  Is there anything wrong with aiming to have a deaf child? Yet other issues have arisen with the commercialization and globalization of reproduction: Is there anything wrong with selling one’s reproductive labor? Is it ethical to ‘outsource’ pregnancy to Indian surrogates? We will start by looking backward to ethical issues around the introduction of contraception; we will end by looking forward, to the promise of same-sex reproduction through in vitro-gametogenesis, and reproduction via artificial gestation.  While we will consider numerous perspectives on each issue, special consideration will be given to feminist viewpoints.  

Cross Listed Courses

WGSS 61.06

Degree Requirement Attributes

Dist:TMV

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