| In this dissertation I develop the groundwork for a feminist Kantian ethic of birthing based on birthing with dignity, understood as not having one's sense of self-worth undermined during one's birthing process. Using studies and women's narratives concerning good and bad birthing experiences, I explain different ways in which women's dignity is undermined during childbirth. By focusing on the value of the experience itself in light of one's moral identity, I explain how birthing can be traumatic for women and the actions taken towards birthing women morally wrong even when done by well-intended attendants and result in a physically healthy woman and baby. I argue that a good birth might involve several interests of birthing women but that the only necessary condition for a good birth is birthing with dignity. I also develop an account of a 'dignified birthing' as a kind of elegant action understood as successfully doing one's birth. I explain that doing birth should be understood as process independently of the outcome of birth if defined as physical health. In my view, a healthy baby is not a sufficient or a necessary condition for doing birth, for a dignified birthing, to birth with dignity, or for a good birth. However, for some women whose birthing includes identity-conferring commitments - those things that we could not do without self-betrayal and personal disintegration given one's conception of the good - a particular manner of birthing is a necessary condition to birth with dignity and therefore for a good birth. My view has some important consequences for contemporary birthing practices I argue that when a particular manner of birthing that involves identity-conferring commitments conflicts with the health of an unborn baby, morality does not require that women submit to procedures to help their unborn babies nor does it allow birthing attendants to force women to submit to procedures, because the violation of such commitments undermines dignity and the exercise of women's agency. My view helps explain how from women's point of view as decision-makers, pregnancy and birthing can be morally complex as well as morally risky processes. |
