Abstract
Disability is a contested concept prevalent in many bioethical discussions. This text presents disability as a phenomenon described within the academic tradition of so-called disability studies. This tradition describes disability mainly as a social phenomenon and distinguishes between impairment – the bodily state of someone’s being – and disability. The latter is largely described as the result of social processes such as discrimination and lack of accessibility. As many bioethicists building different arguments have mobilized cases involving the disabled, but at the same time described disability as a mere medical and pathological state of being, there is a tension between some bioethical discourses and disability studies. This text provides some prominent examples of such discourses.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Agich, G. J. (1997). Toward a pragmatic theory of disease. In J. Humber & R. Almeder (Eds.), What is disease? (pp. 219–246). Totowa: Humana Press.
Fairclough, N. (1989). Language and power. London: Pearson Education Limited.
Goffman, E. E. (1968). Stigma: Notes on the management of spoiled identity. London: Penguin Books.
Goodley, D. (2011). Disability studies. An interdisciplinary introduction. London: SAGE.
Harris, J. (2000). Is there a coherent social conception of disability? Journal of Medical Ethics, 26, 95–100.
Oliver, M. (1996). Understanding disability: From theory to practice. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
Ouellette, A. (2011). Bioethics and disability. Toward a disability-conscious bioethics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Savulescu, J. (2008). Procreative beneficence: Reasons to not have disabled children. In L. Skene & J. Thompson (Eds.), The sorting society. The ethics of genetic screening and therapy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Scully, J. L. (2008). Disability bioethics. Moral bodies. Moral difference. Gloucester: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, INC.
Shakespeare, T. (2006). Disability rights and wrongs. London: Routledge.
Singer, P. (1994). Rethinking life and death – The collapse of our traditional ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
World Health Organization. (2011). World report on disability 2011. WHO Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data. Malta
Further Readings
Goodley, D. (2011). Disability studies. An interdisciplinary introduction. London: SAGE.
Ouellette, A. (2011). Bioethics and disability. Toward a disability-conscious bioethics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Scully, J. L. (2008). Disability bioethics. Moral bodies. Moral difference. Gloucester: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, INC.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this entry
Cite this entry
Kermit, P. (2016). Disability. In: ten Have, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Bioethics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09483-0_141
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09483-0_141
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-09482-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-09483-0
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities