In their attention to gender, race, and sexuality, social approaches to bioethics challenge and expand contemporary bioethical theory and practice. Drawing from philosophy, theology, law, medicine, public health, and the social and biological sciences, this interdisciplinary field is both critical and constructive in addressing theory, method, and substantive ethical concerns across the clinical, research, organizational, public policy, and global spheres. In a (largely) seminar format, we will review the theoretical landscape and social movements that prompted the emergence of feminist bioethics, diverse frameworks of justice, critical race bioethics, queer bioethics, and more as they inform our analyses of particular historical and present-day ethical issues. Special attention is paid to the structuring force of anti-Blackness in various clinical and research settings, the development and racialization of transgender medicine, and what it means to view state violence as a bioethics and public health issue.
BETH 718