Carolyn McLeod
Biographic Data
| ID | 5149389 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Carolyn McLeod |
| GIVEN NAMES | Carolyn |
| FAMILY NAME | McLeod |
| SIGNATURE | MCLEOD C |
| AFFILIATIONS | Western University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0258-9117 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 7 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 22 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2000 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Trust and belonging
A Summary of Conscience in Reproductive Health Care: Prioritizing Patient Interests
At the 2022 Central American Philosophical Association meeting (Chicago, Illinois, February 23–26), there was an Author-Meets-Critics session on Carolyn McLeod’s (2020 ) book, Conscience in Reproductive Health Care: Prioritizing Patient Interests. The event was organized and chaired by Heather Stewart and sponsored by the APA Committee on the Status of Women and Kate Norlock, chair of that committee. There were four speakers, including McLeod and…
Responding to My “Critics”
IJFAB: International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics - Volume 15, Number 2, October 2022
The Effectiveness of Social-Emotional Learning Strategies and Mindful Breathing with Biofeedback on the Reduction of Adolescent Test Anxiety
Educational programs that incorporate social emotional-learning (SEL) strategies, study skills, and mindful breathing using biofeedback can help adolescents decrease worry and social stress, increase test preparedness self-efficacy, and improve academic performance due to lowered levels of test anxiety. The current study examined the efficacy of a SEL intervention (implemented into a high school psychology course) focused on study skills and mind…
Commentary on ‘Four types of gender bias affecting women surgeons, and their cumulative impact’ by Hutchison
My Relational Autonomy and My Relationship with Susan Sherwin
I get both personal and philosophical in this piece. I reflect on how my relationship with Sue Sherwin has fostered my own relational autonomy. At the same time, I discuss what theories of relational autonomy, like Sue’s, add to the bioethics literature on autonomy. With this second objective, I begin clearing up some confusion that I see in this literature about the nature of relational autonomy
The Medical Nonnecessity of In Vitro Fertilization
Debate has raged in Canada recently over whether in vitro fertilization (IVF) should be funded through public health insurance. Such a move would require that the provinces classify IVF as a medically necessary service. In this paper, I defend the position I have taken publicly—especially in Ontario, my own province—that IVF is not medically necessary. I contend that, by funding IVF on grounds of medical necessity, governments like Ontario's viol…
Does Reproductive Justice Demand Insurance Coverage for IVF? Reflections on the Work of Anne Donchin
This paper comes out of a panel honoring the work of Anne Donchin (1940–2014), which took place at the 2016 Congress of the International Network on Feminist Approaches to Bioethics (FAB) in Edinburgh. My general aim is to highlight the contributions Anne made to feminist bioethics, and to feminist reproductive ethics in particular. My more specific aim, however, is to have a kind of conversation with Anne, through her work, about whether reprodu…
A Hague convention on contract pregnancy (or “surrogacy”): Avoiding ethical inconsistencies with the Convention on Adoption
In the past, the Hague Conference on Private International Law has shaped how people can become the legal parents of children born in countries other than their own. It did so by creating the 1993 Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption. It is now interested in developing a convention on international contract pregnancy (or what many call “surrogacy”). We discuss in this commentary what such a convention would have to include for it to be ethic…
An Institutional Solution to Conflicts of Conscience in Medicine
Harm or Mere Inconvenience? Denying Women Emergency Contraception
This paper addresses the likely impact on women of being denied emergency contraception (EC) by pharmacists who conscientiously refuse to provide it. A common view-defended by Elizabeth Fenton and Loren Lomasky, among others-is that these refusals inconvenience rather than harm women so long as the women can easily get EC somewhere else close by. I argue from a feminist perspective that the refusals harm women even when they can easily get EC som…
For Dignity or Money: Feminists on the Commodification of Women's Reproductive Labour
This article aims to lay out the ‘for money’ and ‘for dignity’ arguments that feminist ethicists have given about the reproductive labour women perform in providing oocytes or in getting pregnant for others. Feminist arguments about the morality of these two practices overlap significantly because, from a feminist perspective, the morally relevant facts about them are quite similar. Still, there are dissimilarities, stemming from the obvious fact…
Referral in the Wake of Conscientious Objection to Abortion
Currently, the preferred accommodation for conscientious objection to abortion in medicine is to allow the objector to refuse to accede to the patient's request so long as the objector refers the patient to a physician who performs abortions. The referral part of this arrangement is controversial, however. Pro-life advocates claim that referrals make objectors complicit in the performance of acts that they, the objectors, find morally offensive. …
Referral in the Wake of Conscientious Objection to Abortion
Currently, the preferred accommodation for conscientious objection to abortion in medicine is to allow the objector to refuse to accede to the patient's request so long as the objector refers the patient to a physician who performs abortions. The referral part of this arrangement is controversial, however. Pro-life advocates claim that referrals make objectors complicit in the performance of acts that they, the objectors, find morally offensive. …
Feminists on the Inalienability of Human Embryos
The feminist literature against the commodification of embryos in human embryo research includes an argument to the effect that embryos are "intimately connected" to persons, or morally inalienable from them. We explore why embryos might be inalienable to persons and why feminists might find this view appealing. But, ultimately, as feminists, we reject this view because it is inconsistent with full respect for women's reproductive autonomy and wi…
Feminists on the Inalienability of Human Embryos
The feminist literature against the commodification of embryos in human embryo research includes an argument to the effect that embryos are “intimately connected” to persons, or morally inalienable from them. We explore why embryos might be inalienable to persons and why feminists might find this view appealing. But, ultimately, as feminists, we reject this view because it is inconsistent with full respect for women's reproductive autonomy and wi…
Conscientious Autonomy: What Patients Do vs. What Is Done to Them
Hilde Lindemann, C. H. Browner, Carolyn McLeod, Tom L. Beauchamp, Rebecca Kukla, Conscientious Autonomy: What Patients Do vs. What Is Done to Them, The Hastings Center Report, Vol. 35, No. 5 (Sep. - Oct., 2005), pp. 4-7
How to Distinguish Autonomy from Integrity
1) ‘“Be true to yourself!” and “Don't cave in!” express the value people place on [_]....’ 2) ‘... an important sense of [_] is being true to oneself.’ 3) ‘[_] encourages and protects people's general capacity to lead their lives out of a distinctive sense of their own character, a sense of what is important to and for them. ’ 4) ‘... to value [_] is to place value on an agent's acting from her reasons, whether they are good ones or not.’ Quiz: f…
Integrity and Self‐Protection
Self-Trust and Reproductive Autonomy
A study of the importance of self-trust for women's autonomy in reproductive health. The power of new medical technologies, the cultural authority of physicians, and the gendered power dynamics of many patient-physician relationships can all inhibit women's reproductive freedom. Often these factors interfere with women's ability to trust themselves to choose and act in ways that are consistent with their own goals and values. In this book Carolyn…
Mere and Partial Means: The Full Range of the Objectification of Women
Kant discussed the moral wrong of treating people as mere means or as a means only. To treat people as means is to treat them as objects for our use. It is to objectify them. To treat people as a mere means is to treat them wholly as objects, rather than partially so. It is to have an objectifying manner that is absolute or unmitigated. Whether Kant meant to suggest that we commit a moral wrong only when we treat people as means absolutely, rathe…
Dependency Relations as a Starting Point for Justice
have a choice if she's not well positioned financially? Loves Labor challenges a political system that makes those situations threatening for many women and that puts the responsibility more on them than on men. The book also criticizes contemporary philosophical theories of equality and justice for ignoring the unique social position of people who care for dependents. With profound wisdom, clarity, and compassion, Eva Feder Kittay envisions a so…
Harm or Mere Inconvenience? Denying Women Emergency Contraception
This paper addresses the likely impact on women of being denied emergency contraception (EC) by pharmacists who conscientiously refuse to provide it. A common view-defended by Elizabeth Fenton and Loren Lomasky, among others-is that these refusals inconvenience rather than harm women so long as the women can easily get EC somewhere else close by. I argue from a feminist perspective that the refusals harm women even when they can easily get EC som…
How to Distinguish Autonomy from Integrity
1) ‘“Be true to yourself!” and “Don't cave in!” express the value people place on [_]....’ 2) ‘... an important sense of [_] is being true to oneself.’ 3) ‘[_] encourages and protects people's general capacity to lead their lives out of a distinctive sense of their own character, a sense of what is important to and for them. ’ 4) ‘... to value [_] is to place value on an agent's acting from her reasons, whether they are good ones or not.’ Quiz: f…
Dependency Relations as a Starting Point for Justice
have a choice if she's not well positioned financially? Loves Labor challenges a political system that makes those situations threatening for many women and that puts the responsibility more on them than on men. The book also criticizes contemporary philosophical theories of equality and justice for ignoring the unique social position of people who care for dependents. With profound wisdom, clarity, and compassion, Eva Feder Kittay envisions a so…
Self-Trust and Reproductive Autonomy
A study of the importance of self-trust for women's autonomy in reproductive health. The power of new medical technologies, the cultural authority of physicians, and the gendered power dynamics of many patient-physician relationships can all inhibit women's reproductive freedom. Often these factors interfere with women's ability to trust themselves to choose and act in ways that are consistent with their own goals and values. In this book Carolyn…
Mere and Partial Means: The Full Range of the Objectification of Women
Kant discussed the moral wrong of treating people as mere means or as a means only. To treat people as means is to treat them as objects for our use. It is to objectify them. To treat people as a mere means is to treat them wholly as objects, rather than partially so. It is to have an objectifying manner that is absolute or unmitigated. Whether Kant meant to suggest that we commit a moral wrong only when we treat people as means absolutely, rathe…
Integrity and Self‐Protection
Conscientious Autonomy: What Patients Do vs. What Is Done to Them
Hilde Lindemann, C. H. Browner, Carolyn McLeod, Tom L. Beauchamp, Rebecca Kukla, Conscientious Autonomy: What Patients Do vs. What Is Done to Them, The Hastings Center Report, Vol. 35, No. 5 (Sep. - Oct., 2005), pp. 4-7
How to Distinguish Autonomy from Integrity
1) ‘“Be true to yourself!” and “Don't cave in!” express the value people place on [_]....’ 2) ‘... an important sense of [_] is being true to oneself.’ 3) ‘[_] encourages and protects people's general capacity to lead their lives out of a distinctive sense of their own character, a sense of what is important to and for them. ’ 4) ‘... to value [_] is to place value on an agent's acting from her reasons, whether they are good ones or not.’ Quiz: f…
Feminists on the Inalienability of Human Embryos
The feminist literature against the commodification of embryos in human embryo research includes an argument to the effect that embryos are "intimately connected" to persons, or morally inalienable from them. We explore why embryos might be inalienable to persons and why feminists might find this view appealing. But, ultimately, as feminists, we reject this view because it is inconsistent with full respect for women's reproductive autonomy and wi…
Feminists on the Inalienability of Human Embryos
The feminist literature against the commodification of embryos in human embryo research includes an argument to the effect that embryos are “intimately connected” to persons, or morally inalienable from them. We explore why embryos might be inalienable to persons and why feminists might find this view appealing. But, ultimately, as feminists, we reject this view because it is inconsistent with full respect for women's reproductive autonomy and wi…
Referral in the Wake of Conscientious Objection to Abortion
Currently, the preferred accommodation for conscientious objection to abortion in medicine is to allow the objector to refuse to accede to the patient's request so long as the objector refers the patient to a physician who performs abortions. The referral part of this arrangement is controversial, however. Pro-life advocates claim that referrals make objectors complicit in the performance of acts that they, the objectors, find morally offensive. …
Referral in the Wake of Conscientious Objection to Abortion
Currently, the preferred accommodation for conscientious objection to abortion in medicine is to allow the objector to refuse to accede to the patient's request so long as the objector refers the patient to a physician who performs abortions. The referral part of this arrangement is controversial, however. Pro-life advocates claim that referrals make objectors complicit in the performance of acts that they, the objectors, find morally offensive. …
For Dignity or Money: Feminists on the Commodification of Women's Reproductive Labour
This article aims to lay out the ‘for money’ and ‘for dignity’ arguments that feminist ethicists have given about the reproductive labour women perform in providing oocytes or in getting pregnant for others. Feminist arguments about the morality of these two practices overlap significantly because, from a feminist perspective, the morally relevant facts about them are quite similar. Still, there are dissimilarities, stemming from the obvious fact…
An Institutional Solution to Conflicts of Conscience in Medicine
Harm or Mere Inconvenience? Denying Women Emergency Contraception
This paper addresses the likely impact on women of being denied emergency contraception (EC) by pharmacists who conscientiously refuse to provide it. A common view-defended by Elizabeth Fenton and Loren Lomasky, among others-is that these refusals inconvenience rather than harm women so long as the women can easily get EC somewhere else close by. I argue from a feminist perspective that the refusals harm women even when they can easily get EC som…
A Hague convention on contract pregnancy (or “surrogacy”): Avoiding ethical inconsistencies with the Convention on Adoption
In the past, the Hague Conference on Private International Law has shaped how people can become the legal parents of children born in countries other than their own. It did so by creating the 1993 Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption. It is now interested in developing a convention on international contract pregnancy (or what many call “surrogacy”). We discuss in this commentary what such a convention would have to include for it to be ethic…
The Medical Nonnecessity of In Vitro Fertilization
Debate has raged in Canada recently over whether in vitro fertilization (IVF) should be funded through public health insurance. Such a move would require that the provinces classify IVF as a medically necessary service. In this paper, I defend the position I have taken publicly—especially in Ontario, my own province—that IVF is not medically necessary. I contend that, by funding IVF on grounds of medical necessity, governments like Ontario's viol…
Does Reproductive Justice Demand Insurance Coverage for IVF? Reflections on the Work of Anne Donchin
This paper comes out of a panel honoring the work of Anne Donchin (1940–2014), which took place at the 2016 Congress of the International Network on Feminist Approaches to Bioethics (FAB) in Edinburgh. My general aim is to highlight the contributions Anne made to feminist bioethics, and to feminist reproductive ethics in particular. My more specific aim, however, is to have a kind of conversation with Anne, through her work, about whether reprodu…
Commentary on ‘Four types of gender bias affecting women surgeons, and their cumulative impact’ by Hutchison
My Relational Autonomy and My Relationship with Susan Sherwin
I get both personal and philosophical in this piece. I reflect on how my relationship with Sue Sherwin has fostered my own relational autonomy. At the same time, I discuss what theories of relational autonomy, like Sue’s, add to the bioethics literature on autonomy. With this second objective, I begin clearing up some confusion that I see in this literature about the nature of relational autonomy
The Effectiveness of Social-Emotional Learning Strategies and Mindful Breathing with Biofeedback on the Reduction of Adolescent Test Anxiety
Educational programs that incorporate social emotional-learning (SEL) strategies, study skills, and mindful breathing using biofeedback can help adolescents decrease worry and social stress, increase test preparedness self-efficacy, and improve academic performance due to lowered levels of test anxiety. The current study examined the efficacy of a SEL intervention (implemented into a high school psychology course) focused on study skills and mind…
A Summary of Conscience in Reproductive Health Care: Prioritizing Patient Interests
At the 2022 Central American Philosophical Association meeting (Chicago, Illinois, February 23–26), there was an Author-Meets-Critics session on Carolyn McLeod’s (2020 ) book, Conscience in Reproductive Health Care: Prioritizing Patient Interests. The event was organized and chaired by Heather Stewart and sponsored by the APA Committee on the Status of Women and Kate Norlock, chair of that committee. There were four speakers, including McLeod and…
Responding to My “Critics”
IJFAB: International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics - Volume 15, Number 2, October 2022
Trust and belonging
Political science (18 works) · Law (17 works) · Psychology (11 works) · Reproductive Health and Technologies (9 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Autonomy (7 works) · Law (7 works) · Epistemology (5 works) · Ethics in medical practice (5 works) · Philosophy (5 works)