TY - JOUR
T1 - Vulnerability and the Consenting Subject
T2 - Reimagining Informed Consent in Embryo Donation
AU - Hewer, Rebecca
PY - 2019/11
Y1 - 2019/11
N2 - Informed consent is medico-legal orthodoxy and the principal means by which research encounters with the body are regulated in the UK. However, biomedical advancements increasingly frustrate the degree to which informed consent can be practiced, whilst introducing ambiguity into its legal significance. What is more, feminist theory fundamentally disrupts the ideologically liberal foundations of informed consent, exposing it as a potentially inadequate mode of bioethical regulation. This paper explores these critiques by reference to a case study—embryo donation to health research, following fertility treatment, as regulated by the HFEA 1990—and contends that informed consent cannot adequately respond to the material realities of this research encounter. Thereafter, by drawing on feminist theories of vulnerability, this paper proffers an alternative bioethical approach, which calls for structural reform in recognition of the fundamentally bilateral constitution of self and society and a renewed appreciation for the affective/dispositional tenor of lived experience.
AB - Informed consent is medico-legal orthodoxy and the principal means by which research encounters with the body are regulated in the UK. However, biomedical advancements increasingly frustrate the degree to which informed consent can be practiced, whilst introducing ambiguity into its legal significance. What is more, feminist theory fundamentally disrupts the ideologically liberal foundations of informed consent, exposing it as a potentially inadequate mode of bioethical regulation. This paper explores these critiques by reference to a case study—embryo donation to health research, following fertility treatment, as regulated by the HFEA 1990—and contends that informed consent cannot adequately respond to the material realities of this research encounter. Thereafter, by drawing on feminist theories of vulnerability, this paper proffers an alternative bioethical approach, which calls for structural reform in recognition of the fundamentally bilateral constitution of self and society and a renewed appreciation for the affective/dispositional tenor of lived experience.
KW - Bioethics
KW - Embryo donation
KW - HFEA 1990
KW - Informed consent
KW - Vulnerability
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85075155362&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10691-019-09414-1
DO - 10.1007/s10691-019-09414-1
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85075155362
VL - 27
SP - 287
EP - 310
JO - Feminist Legal Studies
JF - Feminist Legal Studies
SN - 0966-3622
IS - 3
ER -