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Contribution to Book
The Right to Reproduce
Routledge Handbook of Feminist Bioethics (2022)
  • Carolyn McLeod
Abstract
The reproductive rights of women have been a central topic in feminist bioethics. The focus has been predominantly on the right not to reproduce, and so not to be subject to pronatalist social forces that make motherhood compulsory for women. That is the case despite many women and other members of marginalized groups experiencing anti-natalism, or in other words, social pressure to avoid biological reproduction. For these groups, the right to reproduce is as important, if not more important, than the right not to reproduce. This chapter concentrates on the right to reproduce and considers what form it should take in feminist bioethics. The main claim of the chapter is that feminists should ground the right in the need to protect marginalized groups from anti-natalism. 
Keywords
  • reproduction,
  • rights,
  • right to reproduce,
  • feminism,
  • pronatalism,
  • anti-natalism,
  • bionormativity
Publication Date
2022
Editor
W. Rogers, S. Carter, V. Entwistle, C. Mills, J. Leach Scully
Publisher
Routledge
Citation Information
Carolyn McLeod. "The Right to Reproduce" New YorkRoutledge Handbook of Feminist Bioethics (2022) p. 451 - 462
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/carolyn-mcleod/61/
Creative Commons License
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC_BY International License.