Ethics, Moral Life and the Body: Sociological Perspectives

247 Pages·2015·3.212 MB·English

by  Rhonda M. Shaw, (ed.)

Ethics, Moral Life and the Body

Ethics, Moral Life and
the Body
Sociological Perspectives
Rhonda M. Shaw
Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
© Rhonda M. Shaw 2015
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2015 978-1-137-31258-7
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First published 2015 by
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ISBN 978-1-349-67234-9 ISBN 978-1-137-31259-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137312594
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Shaw, Rhonda M., 1962–
Ethics, moral life and the body : sociological perspectives /
Rhonda M. Shaw, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.
pages cm
1. Sociology—Moral and ethical aspects. 2. Ethics—Social
aspects. I. Title.
HM216.S436 2105
303.3’72—dc23 2015014889
For Ursula, Emeline, and Ruby –
who are beautiful when they are good

Contents
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction 1
1 Defining Ethics and Morality 11
2 Moral Judgement and Embodied Ethics 37
3 Sociology and Morality 59
4 Sociology and Bioethics 87
5 Organ and Tissue Donation 115
6 Assisted Human Reproduction 145
7 Breast Milk Sharing and Exchange 177
Conclusion: Ethics and Doing Sociology 201
Notes 205
References 207
Index 233
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to Victoria University of Wellington for granting me
research and study leave during 2014 to complete the writing of this
book. The research of chapters 5, 6, and 7 was undertaken with the
assistance of a Foundation for Research on Science & Technology post-
doctoral fellowship (2002–2004), a Marsden Grant (07-VUW-028 SOC),
and a Kidney Health NZ Grant (2010–2012).
Several chapters in this book explore ideas and concepts that have
previous incarnations in the following publications authored by
R. M. Shaw: ‘Expanding the conceptual toolkit of organ gifting’, Sociology
of Health & Illness (2015), online early view ISSN 0141-9889, pp. 1–15,
doi: 10.1111/1467-9566.12258; ‘Rethinking elements of informed con-
sent for living kidney donation: Findings from a New Zealand study’,
Health Sociology Review, 24(1) (2015): 109–122; ‘Live kidney donation
as body work’, Critical Social Policy, 34(4) (2014): 495–514; ‘Thanking
and reciprocating under the New Zealand organ donation system’,
Health, 16(3) (2012): 295–310; ‘The ethical risks of curtailing emotion
in social science research: The case of organ transfer’, Health Sociology
Review, 20(1) (2011): 59–70; ‘Perspectives on ethics and human milk
banking’, in R. Shaw and A. Bartlett (eds) Giving Breastmilk: Body Ethics
and Contemporary Breastfeeding Practice, Bradford, ON: Demeter Press
(2010); ‘Deliberating and doing ethics in body gifting practices’, Current
Sociology, 58(3) (2010): 443–462; ‘Organ donation in Aotearoa/New
Zealand: Cultural phenomenology and moral humility’, Body & Society,
16(3) (2010): 127–147; ‘Rethinking reproductive gifts as body projects’,
Sociology, 42(1) (2008): 11–28; ‘The notion of the gift in the donation
of body tissues’, Sociological Research Online, 13(6) (2008); ‘Permutations
of assisted reproduction and the cyborg trope’, in M. Porter and J.
Kelso (eds) Theorising and Representing Maternal Realities, UK: Cambridge
Scholars Press (2008); ‘“Insufficient attention”: Making sense of the soci-
ology and ethics debates’, New Zealand Sociology, 19(1) (2004): 77–101;
‘The virtues of cross-nursing and the Yuk factor’, Australian Feminist
Studies, 19(45) (2004): 287–299.
My deepest thanks are due to Ursula Robinson-Shaw for proofread-
ing in whole and commenting on versions of this book, and to Geoff
Robinson for his production assistance and enthusiasm for the project.
Thank you both for supporting me through the lost years.
viii
Acknowledgements ix
I wish to thank Robert Webb for his collaboration on the Marsden pro-
ject, and Ian Dittmer, Janice Langlands, Nick Polaschek, Stephen Streat,
and the people at Kidney Health NZ for their support of the organ dona-
tion and transplantation research. Thanks to Lara Bell for her research
assistance from 2010 to 2012, and to the undergraduate and graduate
students who assisted me with transcribing the data for the three tissue
exchange studies. Thanks also to Sian Burgess from Women’s Health
Action and Joi Ellis from Fertility Associates, for our respective conver-
sations around breast milk exchange and assisted reproduction. Warm
thanks are due to Maureen Molloy, without whose institutional support
of the original study this book, and the research based upon it, would
not have eventuated. Special thanks to the many research participants
whose words and experiences are documented in the pages of this book.
Your stories bring empathic social science to life.