Laws of Conception: A Queer Genealogy of Canada ’s Assisted Human Reproduction Act
About: This article is published in FIU Law Review.The article was published on 2016-01-01 and is currently open access. It has received 1 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Queer.
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TL;DR: The authors argue that the concept of vulnerability makes an important contribution to the project of situating political and legal theory within the natural world, and that the idea of vulnerability can serve as an important bridge between critical legal theory and the emerging green legal theory.
Abstract: For several decades, critical race feminists have struggled with the limits of equality jurisprudence. Recently, feminist legal theorist Martha Fineman has argued that “vulnerability” should be a starting point for thinking about the state’s obligations to its citizens. In this essay, I argue that Fineman’s concept of vulnerability makes an important contribution to the project of situating political and legal theory within the natural world. We live in what some scientists have dubbed the Anthropocene – an age in which our political choices have implications for the flourishing of all life on earth. The idea of vulnerability can serve as an important bridge between critical legal theory and the emerging “green” legal theory. However, I temper this endorsement of vulnerability theory with the observation that, as the environmental policy literature shows, the term “vulnerability” can also mask social inequality and its political sources. Vulnerability must therefore be supplemented with a robust commitment to power analysis as we begin to craft a political theory appropriate to the age of the Anthropocene. Admit that humans have crawled or secreted themselves into every corner of the environment; admit that the environment is actually inside human bodies and minds, and then proceed politically, technologically, scientifically, in everyday life, with careful forbearance, as you might with unruly relatives to whom you are inextricably bound and with whom you will engage over a lifetime.
10 citations
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TL;DR: Vulnerability is and should be understood to be universal and constant, inherent in the human condition as mentioned in this paper, and the concept of vulnerability can be used to argue for a more responsive state and a more egalitarian society.
Abstract: This essay develops the concept of vulnerability in order to argue for a more responsive state and a more egalitarian society. Vulnerability is and should be understood to be universal and constant, inherent in the human condition. The vulnerability approach is an alternative to traditional equal protection analysis; it represents a post-identity inquiry in that it is not focused only on discrimination against defined groups, but concerned with privilege and favor conferred on limited segments of the population by the state and broader society through their institutions. As such, vulnerability analysis concentrates on the institutions and structures our society has and will establish to manage our common vulnerabilities. This approach has the potential to move us beyond the stifling confines of current discrimination-based models toward a more substantive vision of equality.
704 citations
Posted Content•
TL;DR: The authors argue that the concept of vulnerability makes an important contribution to the project of situating political and legal theory within the natural world, and that the idea of vulnerability can serve as an important bridge between critical legal theory and the emerging green legal theory.
Abstract: For several decades, critical race feminists have struggled with the limits of equality jurisprudence. Recently, feminist legal theorist Martha Fineman has argued that “vulnerability” should be a starting point for thinking about the state’s obligations to its citizens. In this essay, I argue that Fineman’s concept of vulnerability makes an important contribution to the project of situating political and legal theory within the natural world. We live in what some scientists have dubbed the Anthropocene – an age in which our political choices have implications for the flourishing of all life on earth. The idea of vulnerability can serve as an important bridge between critical legal theory and the emerging “green” legal theory. However, I temper this endorsement of vulnerability theory with the observation that, as the environmental policy literature shows, the term “vulnerability” can also mask social inequality and its political sources. Vulnerability must therefore be supplemented with a robust commitment to power analysis as we begin to craft a political theory appropriate to the age of the Anthropocene. Admit that humans have crawled or secreted themselves into every corner of the environment; admit that the environment is actually inside human bodies and minds, and then proceed politically, technologically, scientifically, in everyday life, with careful forbearance, as you might with unruly relatives to whom you are inextricably bound and with whom you will engage over a lifetime.
10 citations
TL;DR: In December, 2010, Canada’s 6 year old Assisted Human Reproduction Act was successfully challenged in the Supreme Court of Canada.
Abstract: In December, 2010, Canada’s 6 year old Assisted Human Reproduction Act was successfully challenged in the Supreme Court of Canada. There may be important implications for public health and the evolution of reproductive technologies in this country.
4 citations