The rapid pace of biotechnology is quickly outpacing our ability as a society to absorb how our lives will be affected by it, from conception to death. We are already grappling with many serious and wide-ranging issues such as cloning, stem cell research, in-vitro fertilization, and prenatal identification of genetic disorders, just to name a few.
Advances made possible by biotechnology will profoundly affect what it means to be human and how we live our lives. It will affect us on numerous fronts, including politics (public policy, legislation, control of resources), spirituality (What is life? What does it mean to be human?), and culture (What does it mean to be a mother if children are born outside the womb? What implications do our genetic make-ups reveal? How do the new technological abilities differently affect gender, class, and race?).
Women's voices, perspectives, and experiences are not adequately represented in the current bioethical debates, public policy decisions, or in academic research. The majority of those leading the public debate are men. Women can neither rely on nor expect men to represent the entire range of human experience and perspective. There are no organizations or think tanks devoted to ensuring that women's experiences are included in the bioethical policy discourse. In the absence of rigorous, accessible, and thorough scholarship focused through the lens of women's experience, women risk not being heard on complex bioethical issues. The Women's Bioethics Project was created to fill that gap.
Historically, women have entered late in the political game, and have had to spend time and resources undoing legislation and policies that did not take into consideration the needs and life priorities of women. The good news is that with bioethical issues we still have the opportunity to get ahead of the curve. If we act quickly we will be in a position to anticipate rather than react to problems, and ultimately influence the course of the next century for the good of the entire society. The time to affect these issues is now.
Gender neutral doesn't work if the society isn't gender neutral. Men and women are different. Our gendered roles as daughters, wives, and mothers; our physical bodies; and even the roles we play in society all lead women to experience life in a way that is different from men. This experience produces different needs, expectations, and concerns. For example, due to their bodily experience and role as primary care givers, women have a fundamentally different stake in most reproductive issues than men do.
Illustrations of the power of women's voices are the achievements women have made politically in the last 30 years. By the increased participation of women in political parties, special interest groups, and especially as elected officials, women's issues that were previously overlooked have come to the forefront of legislative debate. These include funding for breast cancer research, broad inclusion in drug trials, fair credit practices, domestic violence issues, child and elder abuse, rape, equal access for girls to sports, and child care.
These issues were not top-of-mind for men, and it took women speaking up to make them heard—yet the work done on them improves everyone's life. As in politics, women's voices will not join the bioethical debate unless we make a concerted effort to include them, thus giving those complex issues that challenge all of humanity the perspectives of both women and men.
No, there is no uniform women's view on all issues. A full analysis of women's experience includes examining race, ethnic background, class, sexual orientation, immigration and disability status. What the WBP hopes to do is represent a broad range of experiences and to engage in dialogue with a number of different perspectives, all with the best interest of society in mind. The WBP welcomes diversity and embraces the uncertainty that diversity brings as a way of getting greater understanding of issues.
A number of bioethics centers exist today: Hastings Institute, Midwest Bioethics Center, Kennedy Center for Bioethics, and numerous smaller ones affiliated with universities. In addition, many think tanks are including bioethical issues in the areas they study. The WBP will seek to leverage and collaborate with these organizations as appropriate. The WBP will also maintain a close and robust affiliation with a wide range of academic institutions including the University of Washington, Seattle University, and the University of Puget Sound as well as those outside of the Seattle area. However, as an independent think tank, the WBP will retain the freedom to address tough issues and develop its own credibility and perspective that is separate from a single institution or bioethics center.
Seattle has a long history of hosting cutting-edge enterprises and thought leadership, from Boeing, Microsoft, and Amazon.com, to the Fred Hutchinson Research Institute and the University of Washington. Seattle also has a strong and growing biotechnology community to draw on for resources and support. What's more, not all great ideas come from Washington, D.C. A healthy distance from the seat of power provides a fresh perspective. There are many lobbyist firms we may engage to help us influence the Congressional powers.