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Bioinequalities: Rethinking Legal Responses to the Biological and Intergenerational Harm Caused by Inequality

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A Jurisprudence of the Body

Part of the book series: Palgrave Socio-Legal Studies ((PSLS))

Abstract

Being the subject of unequal treatment is commonly accepted as a stressful psychological experience; however, its physical impact is less well understood. According to recent scientific work in the field of neuroscience and epigenetics, stress and trauma that arise as a consequence of unequal treatment may have a biological as well as psychological impact. Further, those harms may be inherited by future generations. In this chapter, we argue that law should address the bodily effects of unequal treatment—what we call bioinequalities—and that to do so requires a shift in focus away from an individualised model of harm in favour of a model that understands the harm as shared among individuals, and across communities and generations. Bioinequality is experienced both at the intersection of and embedded within multiple sexed, raced, classed, and disabled (among others) identities and is interwoven with the social and material world, and the psychosocial environment. We challenge the individualising orientation of existing laws attempting to redress inequality, calling instead for a legal response that accounts for the intersectional and intergenerational harms of inequality.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In Australia the federal Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) also covers pregnancy, marital status, family responsibilities, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

  2. 2.

    Although the UK now has a single Equality Act 2010, the categories of discrimination (“protected characteristics”) are largely the same: age; gender reassignment; being married or in a civil partnership; being pregnant or on maternity leave; disability; race including colour, nationality, ethnic, or national origin; religion or belief; sex; sexual orientation. The Equality Act also prevents genetic information being used in employment decisions (i.e. hiring or firing someone).

  3. 3.

    See the research project “The Legal Regulation of Behaviour as a Disability,” above n1, as detailed on our website https://bioinequalities.com/

  4. 4.

    Notably both the USA and Canada have standalone genetic antidiscrimination legislation. See the US Genetic Information Non Discrimination Act (GINA) and the Canadian Genetic Non Discrimination Act (GNDA).

  5. 5.

    In 2018, we conducted a search on the University of Technology, Sydney, Library’s Primo Central Index using the search terms “maternal stress” and “paternal stress” and restricting the range to titles of peer-reviewed articles. The Primo Central Index is a centralized index of articles and other information sources. It covers all subject and discipline areas and includes articles and other publications from major academic publishers. Among the “peer reviewed” journal articles there were 11,126 with “maternal stress” in the title and just 468 with “paternal stress” in the title on March 18, 2018.

  6. 6.

    In our study of legal responses to behavioural disabilities we found a number of cases where women with personality disorders who were claiming workers compensation for bullying and harassment at work were found to be only eligible for compensation for the aggravation of their pre-existing personality disorder and for a limited period of time. Moreover, the personality disorders were often attributed to a early incident of sexual or physical abuse. See Karpin, I. and O’Connell, K. (forthcoming) Disability, Gender and the Institution of Justice: An examination of Australian case law involving personality disorders. In Spivakovsky, C., Steele, L. and Weller, P. (Eds.), The Legacies of Institutionalisation: Disability, law and policy in the ‘deinstitutionalised’ community.

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  1. University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Karen O’Connell & Isabel Karpin

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  1. Karen O’Connell
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  1. School of Law, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

    Chris Dietz

  2. School of Law, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

    Mitchell Travis

  3. School of Law, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

    Michael Thomson

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O’Connell, K., Karpin, I. (2020). Bioinequalities: Rethinking Legal Responses to the Biological and Intergenerational Harm Caused by Inequality. In: Dietz, C., Travis, M., Thomson, M. (eds) A Jurisprudence of the Body. Palgrave Socio-Legal Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42200-4_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42200-4_4

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