McGowan Michelle L, Sharp Richard R
Case Western Reserve University, Department of Bioethics, 10900 Euclid Avenue, TA 200, Cleveland, OH44106.
Cleveland Clinic, Center for Ethics, Humanities and Spiritual Care, Department of Bioethics, Cleveland Clinic Main Campus, Mail Code JJ60, 9500 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44195.
Sci Technol Human Values. 2013 Mar 1;38(2). doi: 10.1177/0162243912469412.
Bioethics and feminist scholarship has explored various justice implications of non-medical sex selection and family balancing. However, prospective users' viewpoints have been absent from the debate over the socially acceptable bounds of non-medical sex selection. This qualitative study provides a set of empirically-grounded perspectives on the moral values that underpin prospective users' conceptualizations of justice in the context of a family balancing program in the United States. The results indicate that couples pursuing family balancing understand justice primarily in individualist and familial terms rather than in terms of social justice for women and girls or for children resulting from sex selection. Study participants indicated that an individual's desire for gender balance in their family is ethically complex and may not be inherently sexist, immoral or socially consequential, particularly given the social context in which they live. Our findings suggest that the social conditions that contribute to prospective users' desires for gender balance in their families may direct them away from recognizing or engaging broader social justice concerns relating to sexism and stratified reproduction.
生物伦理学和女性主义学术研究探讨了非医学性别选择和家庭平衡的各种正义影响。然而，在关于非医学性别选择的社会可接受范围的辩论中，潜在使用者的观点却一直缺失。这项定性研究提供了一系列基于实证的观点，这些观点涉及在美国一项家庭平衡计划背景下，支撑潜在使用者正义概念化的道德价值观。结果表明，追求家庭平衡的夫妇主要从个人主义和家庭层面理解正义，而非从女性和女孩或性别选择所生孩子的社会正义层面来理解。研究参与者表示，个人对家庭中性别平衡的渴望在伦理上是复杂的，可能并非天生就具有性别歧视、不道德或具有社会后果，特别是考虑到他们所处的社会背景。我们的研究结果表明，促成潜在使用者对家庭性别平衡渴望的社会条件，可能会使他们偏离认识或关注与性别歧视和分层生育相关的更广泛社会正义问题。
