The other side of geographies and cultures

Abstract

Like feminism and bioethics at large, feminist bioethics should and has been global in its scope of academic inquiry and socio-political activism. It is often thought that the world’s great diversity of geographies and cultures constitutes a major stumbling block for globalizing essential feminist values, such as women’s rights as human rights, gender equality and gender justice in bioethical settings. However, there exist abundant positive and aspirational resources in societies and cultures in the Global South that feminist bioethics could learn from. Taking the theoretical and methodological approach of “ethical transculturalism,” this chapter critically reviews the feminist bioethical issues involved in three case studies: one-child to three-child population policies in China, the vulnerability of caring for the elderly in China, and female leadership in Taiwan in response to COVID-19, all within a global context. Through these, this chapter illustrates three ways to better recognize the positive side of geographies and cultures to further globalize feminist bioethics: (1) attending to the practical matters that concern the large number of women in the developing world; (2) integrating their lived experiences into feminist bioethical conceptualization and theorization; and (3) promoting feminist leadership in realizing global healing and transforming global bioethics.