Skip to main content
Log in

Making peace in gestational conflicts

  • Published:
Theoretical Medicine Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Mary Anne Warren's claim that “there is room for only one person with full and equal rights inside a single human skin” ([1], p. 63) calls attention to the vast range of moral conflict engendered by assigning full basic moral rights to fetuses. Thereby, it serves as a goad to thinking about conflicts between pregnant women and their fetuses in a way that emphasizes relationships rather than rights. I sketch out what a ‘care orientation’ might suggest about resolving gestational conflicts. I also argue that the care orientation, with its commitment to the significance of the partial and the particular, cannot be absorbed within standard, impartialist moral theory.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Warren MA. The moral significance of birth.Hypatia 1989;4(3):59.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Gilligan C.In a Different Voice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Gilligan C. Moral orientation and moral development. In: Kittay EF, Meyers DT, eds.Women and Moral Theory. Totawa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield, 1987:19–36.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Williams B.Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1985.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Cottingham J. Partialism, favouritism and morality.Philosophical Quarterly 1986;36:357–73.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Baier A. The need for more than justice.Canadian Journal of Philosophy 1987;13(Suppl):41–56.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Held V. Feminism and moral theory. In: Kittay EF, Meyers DT, eds.Women and Moral Theory. Totawa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield, 1987:111–28.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Rachels J. Morality, parents and children. In: Graham J, LaFollette H, eds.Person to Person. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1989:46–62.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Gewirth A. Ethical universalism and particularism.The Journal of Philosophy 1988;85:283–302.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Kluge EHW. When Caesarian section operations imposed by a court are justified.J Med Ethics 1988;14(4):206–11.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Lesser H. Obligation and consent.J Med Ethics 1989;15(4):195–6.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Warren MA. On the moral and legal status of abortion. In: Feinberg J, ed.The Problem of Abortion. 2nd ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1984:102–19.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Greenhouse L. Court in capital bars forced surgery to save fetus.The New York Times 1990 April 27:A1, A18.

  14. Kirp D. Protect the fetus.Vogue 1990;(May):198, 203–4.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Duncan A. Fetal protection and the exclusion of women from the toxic workplace.North Carolina Central Law Journal 1989;18(Spring):67–86.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Blum L. Iris Murdoch and the domain of the moral.Philosophical Studies 1986;50:343–67.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Blum L. Gilligan and Kohlberg: implications for moral theory.Ethics 1988;98:472–91.

    Google Scholar 

  18. Adler J. Particularity, Gilligan and the two-levels view: a reply.Ethics 1989;100:149–55.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Hare RM. Ethical theory and utilitarianism. In: Sen A, Williams B, eds.Utilitarianism and Beyond. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982:23–38.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Williams B. Persons, character and morality. In: Williams B.Moral Luck. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982:1–19.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Friedman M. The impracticality of impartiality.The Journal of Philosophy 1989;86:645–56.

    Google Scholar 

  22. Purdy L. Are pregnant women fetal containers?Bioethics 1990;4(4):273–91.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Walker M. Moral particularity.Metaphilosophy 1987;18:171–85.

    Google Scholar 

  24. Nelson J. Forced Caesarians and maternal-fetal rights.Medical Humanities Review 1990;12:1–3.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Nelson, J.L. Making peace in gestational conflicts. Theor Med Bioeth 13, 319–328 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02126698

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02126698

Key words

Navigation