Feminist Philosophy and Prenatal Death: Relationality and the Ethics of Intimacy

Abstract

AbstractPeople affected by prenatal death often grapple with some serious philosophical questions: What kind of life is it that dies before it is born? What has been lost, and how do we mourn a life that has never been lived in an external social world? Yet within academic philosophy, prenatal death is an almost entirely neglected issue. This is true even within feminist philosophy, where sustained attention has been given to gestation, birth, and reproduction, but the norm is to presume that pregnancy results in a living child. The aim of this article, therefore, is to start addressing the questions articulated above, giving a philosophical account of prenatal death and the grief that can ensue. The first part explores feminist philosopher Alison Stone’s understanding of death as relational and argues that Stone’s relational model offers a way of making sense of what is lost in prenatal death, and the significance of mourning for a life that was never born. The second part develops this argument further,...