IJFAB: International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world. The depth and breadth of changes are still unfolding. What is the place of feminist bioethics (or bioethics in general) in this new world? It's important to point out that COVID-19 is only one of a few major catastrophes we are facing as humans. The ongoing and worsening effects of climate change, along with the paltry efforts of politicians to address it, are an urgent concern. Humanitarian crises caused by climate change (e.g., devastating hurricanes, flooding, and landslides), by COVID-19 (e.g., the overwhelming of fragile healthcare systems), or crises unrelated to either but surely worsened by both (e.g., the collapse of governments and political unrest), are also unfolding apace.

Whither feminist bioethics in a world that feels like we are putting out fires (literally, figuratively) all the time and in which it feels hard to keep hope alive for a better world? Ethics is a discipline that looks forward. Ethicists examine the present and the past to know how to do better into the future. When the future is deeply unstable, ethics is even more important. Perhaps feminist bioethicists can take the knowledge we hold together, all the work of our forebearers, to help people in this new world. Central principles of feminist ethics, like relationality, care, solidarity, vulnerability, respect, and nondomination, must become the foundations of our problem-solving for infectious diseases, climate emergencies, and humanitarian crises. It may be that to do this, feminist bioethicists continue the tradition of activism that long partnered with our scholarly work.

Feminist activism within and outside of the academy has a long history, whether fighting for the vote or trans-inclusive spaces. Feminist bioethicists are often part of the academy, an institution that in and of itself can contribute to the marginalization and oppression of certain groups, or the problems of climate change, global imperialism/colonization and neoliberal capitalism, to name a few. As members of these academies, feminist bioethicists can occupy both privileged and precarious positions, but they will nevertheless have access to some resources, knowledge, and expertise not available more widely. It is this access that authors like La Paperson (K. Wayne Yang) (2007) argue we should assemble [End Page 162] in efforts to create transformative change. It is a feminist imperative to combine these resources with our particular intellectual tools within the limits of our contexts and focus them both internally on important policy changes (whether directed at education, research, or even university investment policies) and externally to support communities and publics in driving for change.

This imperative to address the structures that create such cruelty, destruction, and injustice has always been present and urgent; our current moment only makes our audiences potentially more receptive. The foundations of feminist activism and therefore feminist bioethical activism have always been solidarity, love, and rage. This moment calls for critical feminist analysis of bioethical issues, which are at the forefront of many current problems, set upon these foundations and taken into Zoom meetings, classrooms, reviews, community action, government hearings, and to the streets. As Angela Davis (2016) says, "Sometimes we have to do the work even though we don't yet see a glimmer on the horizon that it's actually going to be possible" (29).