ABSTRACT
In order to appreciate what distinguishes feminist from nonfeminist approaches to bioethics, we must first understand what distinguishes feminist from nonfeminist approaches to ethics. Although this is not a simple task, it is a necessary one. Tracing the similarities and differences between feminist and nonfeminist approaches to ethics will ultimately enable us to identify what feminist approaches to bioethics do and don't have in common with nonfeminist approaches to bioethics. It will also help us to formulate moral critiques of actions, practices, and institutions in the realm of biomedicine that reinforce women’s subordination; to develop morally justifiable methods of countering such actions, practices, and institutions; and to imagine morally ideal ways to restructure the realm of biomedicine in a women-liberating and women-affirming fashion.
