フェミニスト生命倫理学

Bioethics誌の最新号が、フェミニスト生命倫理学の特集となっている。

Bioethics Vol.21, No.9 November 2007

なかでも、Angela Thachukの"The Space in Between: Narratives of Silenced and Genetic Terminations" 511-514 が気になる。

Consider the following:

A young woman is presented with the results of prenatal screening indicating a series of fatal anomalies. Peior to conception the woman and her partner had agreed that if diagnostic testing revealed disabling conditions, she would terminate the pregnancy. After much struggle, she affirms the decision to abort. Their grief and anguish is palpable. The woman says she will tell others she has miscarried.

For this particular woman, and others like her, the decision seemingly wraps her in a shroud of silence beyond the walls of clinic. In North America, prenatal testing and selective terminations are becoming clinically normalized. Yet, despite this implied social acceptance, open discussions surrounding selective terminations remain taboo. Women are often socially isolated, their experiences kept secret, and their grief disenfranchised. (p.512)

著者はカナダの大学に勤めているらしい。このテーマがカナダ(北米)ではタブーであり、女性の経験が秘匿されているという指摘は考えさせられる。日本でも状況は同じであろう。