Document Type
Dissertation
Publication Date
8-1999
Abstract
In this thesis. I give a theory of the nature of self-trust and an explanation of its role in autonomous decision-making. We tend to think of trust as essentially interpersonal which casts doubt on the coherence of the concept of self-trust. Drawing on patients' experiences in reproductive medicine. I argue that self-trust is a meaningful as well as a useful concept. I provide autobiographical sketches of a number of women's experiences. supplemented by my own observations made while doing a clinical practicum in reproductive medicine, to illustrate that what many women feel toward themselves in a variety of reproductive health care contexts is analogous to what we feel toward others when we trust and distrust them. I ground my theory of self-trust in an account of interpersonal trust, in which I draw on a number of theories of trust in ethics, especially those of Annette Baier and Karen Jones. The paradigm of trust in those theories is interpersonal, and I describe how self-trust and that paradigm are both alike and unlike one another in the following areas: what it is that we trust about ourselves/others when we are trusting, what kind of mental attitude trust is, and what constitute legitimate grounds for trusting. I use my theory of the nature of self-trust to understand the relation between autonomy and self-trust. I give a feminist analysis of that relation by showing how oppression can be a barrier to self-trust and hence, to autonomy. Lastly. I discuss the practical implications of the value of self-trust for the duty of health care providers to respect women's reproductive autonomy.
Included in
Bioethics and Medical Ethics Commons, Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Philosophy Commons
Notes
PhD dissertation at Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS.
Dr. Carolyn McLeod is currently a faculty member at The University of Western Ontario.