Toward a queer feminist bioethics of sexuality

Abstract

Interest in sexuality remains scarce in mainstream bioethics, despite the centrality of sexuality to many people’s health and wellbeing, and its ethical, political and philosophical importance. This chapter builds on a dialogue between feminist and queer thought to highlight the importance of this topic for feminist bioethics and move toward a framework for a queer feminist bioethics. It overviews tensions between queer and feminist approaches, outlines particular LGBTQI+ bioethical issues, and discusses key bioethical concepts within a queer feminist framework. Further, it urges the development of a queer feminist framework that refuses cis-gendered and heteronormative accounts of sexuality, replacing these with norms of gender and sexual variance. This approach would enhance normative analysis of material injustices based on the intersectional experiences of queer people and women in their complex sexualities.