Queering Vulnerability: A Layered Bioethical Approach



: Sudenkaarne Tiia

Publisher: Finnish Anthropological Society

: Helsinki

: 2018

: Suomen Antropologi

: 43

: 3

: 73

: 90

: 1799-8972

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30676/jfas.v43i3.82734

: https://journal.fi/suomenantropologi/article/view/82734

: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/41070010


Vulnerability is a concept often used in bioethics. However, it is seldom interrogated from a queer point of view. By queer inquiry, I refer to an umbrella understanding of gender and sexuality as diverse. In this article I discuss lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer and intersex -related (LGBTQI) approaches to vulnerability. Framing these discussions from queer and LGBTQI bioethical theory, I offer an original approach to vulnerability based on queer bioethics and on a layered understanding of vulnerability. After considering queer bioethics and its (queer) critiques, I conclude that a layered understanding of vulnerability has strong potential for analyzing LGBTQI/queer vulnerabilities in bioethics. For further research, I formulate four layers of queer vulnerabilities to demonstrate some of that potential. I call these the layer of ethical sustainability, the layer of queer agency, the layer of interrogatory intimacy, and the layer of troubled kinship. I insist all layers should be critically evaluated and developed further with intersectional approaches.

Last updated on 2024-26-11 at 19:41