Medical issues affecting health care have become everyday media events. In response to mounting public concern, growing numbers of bioethicists are being appointed to medical school faculties and public policy panels. However the ideas voiced in these forums are seldom informed by feminist perspectives. In this important book, a distinguished group of feminist scholars and activists discuss crucial bioethics topics in a feminist light. Among the subjects explored are the care/justice debates, transforming bioethics, practice, and reproduction. The book also covers less commonly discussed issues, such as culturally appropriate responses to reproductive health problems in developing countries.

Relational theory has recently gained prominence in philosophy,
women's and gender studies, and bioethics. Yet it has not made
substantial inroads into many areas of law and policy. Being
Relational seeks to remedy this situation by bringing this
powerful theoretical framework to the field of health law and
policy.

At the heart of relational theory lies the idea that the human self
is fundamentally constituted in terms of its relations to others. For
relational theorists, the self not only lives in relationship with and
to others, but also owes its very existence to such relationships. In
this groundbreaking collection, leading relational theorists explore
the key concepts of autonomy, judgment, equality, justice, memory,
identity, and conscience. In response, health policy and law scholars
analyze how such considerations might be brought to bear on pressing
issues such as reproduction, allocation of scarce resources, Aboriginal
health, mental health, and animal experimentation.

Innovative and self-reflexive, Being Relational makes a
bold contribution to law and policy studies that will appeal to a broad
range of scholars, especially those with an interest in social justice,
and who seek to challenge oppression and understand the complex ways in
which power is created and sustained relationally.

Jocelyn Downie is a professor of law and medicine and
a Canada Research Chair in Health Law and Policy at Dalhousie
University. She is a member of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences
and the Royal Society of Canada. Jennifer J. Llewellyn
is an associate professor of law at Dalhousie University, and director
of the Nova Scotia Restorative Justice Community University Research
Alliance.