Lysaught, M. Therese

English

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Marquette Universitye-Publications@MarquetteTheology Faculty Research and Publications Theology, Department of11-1-2001Review of Health Care and the Ethics of Encounter: AJewish Discussion of Social Justice, by Laurie ZolothM. Therese LysaughtMarquette UniversityPublished version. Newsletter of the International Network on Feminist Approaches to Bioethics, Vol. 9,No. 2 (November 2001): 9-10. Publisher Link. © 2001 International Network on FeministApproaches to Bioethics.M. Therese Lysaught was affiliated with the University of Dayton at the time of publication.November 2001 Volume 9, Number 2  page 9such diverse reality that the last essay in this theoreticalsection, written by Debora Diniz and Ana Cristina GonzalezVelez, strongly emphasizes the necessity of claiming theparticularity of the local context (in this case, Brazil) and theurgency for bioethicists to be as attentive as possible tolocal particulars. The authors also argue against the trans-fer of bioethical theories developed in the United States toBrazil and other ‘peripheral countries.’ Interestingly, how-ever, in their opposing foreign dominance, the authors callfor a ‘unique bioethics for Brazil’ as if no diversity existswithin the boundaries of a nation state.In the second part of the book, the local-global dialogueis contextualized in a series of essays on particular repro-ductive, genetic and sexual health issues. Issues thatemerge include the diversity of women’s moral experiencewith regard to pregnancy, family planning and abortion,notwithstanding some transcultural similarities; the poten-tiality of reproductive technologies to undermine women’sautonomy rather than strengthen it; men’s responsibilityin protecting women from unwanted pregnancy; the impli-cation of genetic knowledge and related technological de-velopment for human and more particularly women’s wel-fare; and the impact of moral state ideologies onmarginalized groups.One issue that reserves particular attention, in view ofthe emerging discourse on men’s participation in repro-ductive health, is whether greater men’s involvement isdesirable from a feminist perspective since it may end updisempowering women even further. How does greater men’sinvolvement affect women’s autonomy and control of theirbody?  And how are different, more equitable, gender rolesto be attained: through legal sanctions, as proposed byNaoko Miyaji, or through an awareness raising process?Finally, the essays in the third, and final, part of thebook focus on medical research and treatment. I find thissection particularly interesting for the strong emphasis onhuman rights as the key concept of feminist analysis. Thecentral question can be summed-up as follows: do medicalresearch, trials and treatment respect the rights and dignityof women? The authors seem to conclude negatively, andstress that medical science and technology is not valuefree, and that fragrant abuses can occur due to the domi-nance of patriarchal values held by health professionalsand their connivance with authoritarian systems. AsJonathan Mann, quoted in the last essay, states, it is timefor health professionals ‘to consider their responsibilitynot only to respect human rights in developing policies,programs and practices, but to contribute actively fromtheir position as health workers to improving societal real-ization of rights’ (pp.327-328).Similarly, this book shows that there is much work to bedone by feminist bioethicists in conceptualizing and prac-ticing a global feminist bioethics respectful of human rightsand diversity. As Nancy M. Williams notes in her epilogue,the task of assimilating diverse, and oftentimes conflicting,cross-cultural perspectives is incredibly challenging (p.334).Still, this anthology in itself proves that there is willingnessfrom many sides to work on such a daunting task. Hope-fully, future readers will feel called to make an effort to buildcross-cultural understanding in an increasingly dividedworld.Rosalia Sciortino, Rocke Feller FoundationA review of Health Care and the Ethics of Encounter: AJewish Discussion of Social Justice, by Laurie Zoloth.Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 1999.  323 pages,$45.00 cloth, $19.95 paper.This is a beautiful book.  One should read it for thatreason alone, since we could all use more beauty in ourlives.It is beautiful because it is passionate. Zoloth’s deepconcern about the injustice wrought on millions of real peopleby the current system of health care allocation in the U.S. isevident from the first page. This passion provides the textwith a feeling of urgency, of concreteness, of reality. Thebook likewise glows with Zoloth’s deep love for the Jewishtradition and communal life. Immersed in that tradition,Zoloth convincingly constructs a compelling alternativediscourse for considering questions of the medical commongood from the texts, language, and history of Judaism.It is beautiful because it is well-written. Not only isZoloth’s prose a delightfully refreshing change of pace fromthe arid, abstract, or puffed-up tone which plagues so manybioethicists; it is also clear. In Part One, she provides one ofthe most accessible accounts of the crisis of health carereform and the Oregon Health Care Decision Making Projectthat I have yet encountered. And if that were not enough,she then turns to an even more complex beast—the liberalaccount of justice from Locke through Veatch, completewith its critics from various communitarian camps (philo-sophical, sociological, feminist, and Christian). Again, herdisplay of the various parties to the conversation is clearand understandable. This is no mean feat.It is beautiful because it is substantive and carefully-crafted. Zoloth is clearly in command of the material on Or-egon Health Decisions and the critiques of liberal politicaltheory. As she turns to the Jewish tradition in Part Two,however, the substantive power of the work becomes evenmore impressive. Zoloth seeks to provide an alternative tothe regnant anthropology of the moral agent, rooted, as it isin liberal theory, in an individualistic autonomy. She findssuch an alternative in the Jewish tradition, elaborated withinThe International Network on Feminist Approaches to Bioethicsthe ethical theory of theologian Emmanuel Levinas as “anethics of encounter.” Talmudic texts, Jewish theologians(e.g., Levinas, Buber), contemporary Jewish scholars, andHolocaust texts are woven together to create a richly con-strued, deeply communal world in which the reader is im-mersed.It is beautiful because it is feminist. Zoloth’s reconstruc-tion of the Jewish tradition in chapters six and seven is thencrystallized through an amazing exegesis of the Book ofRuth in the penultimate but climactic chapter of the argu-ment. It is in the story of these two women—Ruth andNaomi—that she finds “a new vocabulary for justice: per-sonal, intimate, relational, and yet directly normative.” Thebook is worth picking up just to read this exegesis.Clear writing distills complex ideas. Consequently, thisbook would be wonderful to use with undergraduates toexplore health care reform, theories of justice, the vitality ofreligious traditions in bioethics, and creative feminist analy-sis. Equally, however, this book ought to be read by anyserious bioethicist. A short review cannot do justice to theZoloth’s careful analysis, the multiple resources brought tobear, and her brilliant display of the power of both religioustraditions and feminism to provide compelling alternativesto stagnant and intractable debates. True to the modelZoloth puts forward, the book requires the reader to enterinto conversation, to engage in a “face-to-face” encounter.M. Therese Lysaught, University of DaytonA review of Sexual Harassment as an Ethical Issuein Academic Life, by Leslie Pickering Francis. Lanham,Md: Rowman and Littlefield, 2000. 265 pages, $73.50cloth; $21.95 paper.Leslie Francis, professor of both law and philosophyat the University of Utah, is author of roughly half ofthis book, which appears in Stanley Cahn’s series, Is-sues in Academic Ethics. The other half of the volumeis made up of reprints of some of the most varied andinfluential work on sexual harassment and a generousselection of sexual harassment polices from a variety ofacademic institutions.Francis begins by working her way through the com-plicated conceptual terrain of sexual harassment, usingfive categories of behavior to launch the discussion.These are gender harassment, seductive behavior, sexualbribery, sexual coercion, and sexual assault.  She thenarticulates the central ongoing questions in conceptual-izing sexual harassment: What is the role of pervasive-ness in making an environment hostile because harass-ing? What are the links between power and harassment?Do the ideas of female-to-male and same-sex harass-ment make sense?  From whose point of view shouldharassment be identified?  All of these questions areaddressed in the book, in Francis’s own chapters or thecollected selections.After laying some groundwork, Francis frames thediscussion of sexual harassment as an ethical issue inacademia within a consideration of freedom of expres-sion and the purposes of higher education.  Here, shenicely shows how the responsibility to ensure that allstudents in the academy have equal access to educationcan conflict with both freedom of expression and theobligation of the academy to transmit knowledge.  Forexample, she asks: What if maintaining the university asan open forum for speech results in hate speech, ha-rassment, or discussions that marginalize groups forwhom access is particularly central? What if insistenceon access deflects attention from the development andtransmission of knowledge? (21)Different answers to these kinds of questions flowfrom different points of view.  Francis divides thesepoints of view into liberal commitments to both knowl-edge and equality in the academy, conservative com-mitments to the preservation of traditional cultures andthe traditional canon, and radical critics’ commitmentsto moving away from the myth of liberal neutrality andto undermining the reproduction of repressive culture.Because harassment has expressive components, Franciscompletes her account of the conceptual geography witha helpful discussion of the purported distinction betweenspeech and action, including the embedded question ofwhether some speech constitutes wrongful harm.Francis follows her articulation and clarification ofthe conceptual issues with a discussion of sexual ha-rassment in the law -- an equally difficult and often con-fusing terrain.  Here, she divides the discussion betweensexual harassment in employment law and sexual ha-rassment in education law, returning to several of theconceptual issues she isolated in the chapter on con-ceptualizing sexual harassment.Next, Francis devotes two chapters to the questionof moral wrong as it arises in assaults, threats, and of-fers.  She offers an illuminating discussion of the verytricky business of distinguishing offers from threats andoffenses from harms in the context of the special fea-tures of campus communities which create special ob-ligations for certain members of these communities.  Thislinks to a discussion of consensual sexual relationshipsand the concerns they raise about educational qualityand opportunity, and the quality of consent.Having drawn some conclusions along the way, in

Review of \u3cem\u3eHealth Care and the Ethics of Encounter: A Jewish Discussion of Social Justice\u3c/em\u3e, by Laurie Zoloth

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Review of \u3cem\u3eHealth Care and the Ethics of Encounter: A Jewish Discussion of Social Justice\u3c/em\u3e, by Laurie Zoloth

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