About Alison Reiheld

Alison Reiheld is Professor of Philosophy at Southern Illinois University - Edwardsville and co-President (with Perry Zurn) of the Association for Feminist Ethics and Social Theory (FEAST).

Founding member of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics Network, Brazilian bioethicist Prof Debora Diniz, in hiding due to death threats

Yesterday, The Guardian reported on the dire straits afflicting Debora Diniz in Brazil. Diniz, a founding member of the Feminist Approaches to Bioethics Network (FABnet) which birthed IJFAB and consequently this blog, has gone into hiding. Diniz has long experienced harassment in … Continue reading

Share Button

Pedagogy PART 4: The Ethical Classroom – Avoiding Privilege and Oppression When Teaching About It
avatar

Editor’s Note: This is Part 4 in the IJFAB Blog mini-series on pedagogy, with a focus on teaching about oppression, disadvantage, and privilege. Part 1 dealt with dogmatically unyielding students, while Parts 2 and 3 gave the professor and student sides … Continue reading

Share Button

Major change coming to new WHO disease classification system for transgender persons, but will it be good?
avatar

I have long been concerned with how our nosologies–the way in which we classify diseases, and decide which human conditions count as diseases–exemplify a mix of science and social values. In my work, I’ve touched on this with obesity, and … Continue reading

Share Button

Outcome of Irish abortion vote: Repeal of the 8th
avatar

I appreciated Sorcha’s excellent blog the other day in the lead-up to the Irish vote on whether to repeal the 8th amendment which was added to the Irish constitution 25 years ago. For more background, check it out.  But I … Continue reading

Share Button

Questions and Sorrow and Regret and a Plan: Reflections on Medical Scarcity and Triage in the Gaza Strip
avatar

We all see things through our lenses, for good or for ill. And when listening to the numbers of civilian casualties in Gaza in U.S. press coverage over the last few days, I kept thinking about the emergency rooms and … Continue reading

Share Button

Persons as Producers: Why bioethics should be concerned with work culture and the structure of labor
avatar

Today, May 1, is known in the labor rights movement as May Day or International Workers’ Day. It celebrates the dignity of laboring humans and the right to be seen as and live as fully human. I want to use … Continue reading

Share Button

Individualization, Access, and Bias: ACOG issues new consensus call for improvements to maternal health care, but there are serious pitfalls to watch out for
avatar

I am struck by what health care disparities and the lived experiences of postpartum patients mean for implementation of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology’s new guidelines on postpartum care. These guidelines valuably refocus the medical establishment’s focus on … Continue reading

Share Button

Seek each other out: Nothing About Us Without Us, Autism Awareness Month, and the centering of autistic persons
avatar

April is Autism Awareness Month in the U.S.  All too often, the rhetoric around autism is shaped by the needs and voices of the caregivers and families of people who are autistic. Goodness knows the perspectives of caregivers and families … Continue reading

Share Button

New Year’s Resolutions
avatar

My New Year’s Resolutions about obligations to self and others in no particular order, and about balancing work and life and activism as a woman, a mother, and a feminist bioethicist. 1) Move in ways that feel good, as much … Continue reading

Share Button

Who Should Be Responsible for Environment, Health, and Politics: Detroit and 1,300 other “hotspots” have higher lead poisoning rates than Flint and someone needs to do something
avatar

The long-time reader of IJFAB Blog, and alert bioethicist who follows the news, will remember the Flint water crisis.  As numerous investigative news articles–and even at least one news comedy show–have pointed out, Flint is by no means alone in the … Continue reading

Share Button

What you don’t know CAN hurt you: Epistemic Injustice and Conceptually Impoverished Health Promotion
avatar

I want to consider a particular kind of wrong within medicine and health promotion: epistemic injustice and its harms. My case study is obesity conceived of as a public health concern. However, the analytic framework I deploy may prove useful … Continue reading

Share Button

Police, providers, and patients: between a rock and a hard place? Not really
avatar

The Salt Lake Tribune (from the US State of Utah) posted an article yesterday about a nurse who refused to let a police officer trained in phlebotomy take a blood sample from an unconscious patient. The nurse was arrested and … Continue reading

Share Button