Women's Rights? The Politics of Eugenic Abortion in Modern Japan

• Main Author: Kato, Masae (auth)
• Format: Electronic Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam University Press 2009
• Series: IIAS Publications Series
• Subjects: History; Society & culture: general; Law; japanologie; law; women and education, research, related topics; recht; vrouwenstudies; japan
• Online Access: OAPEN Library: download the publication; OAPEN Library: description of the publication

This volume explores the concept of Japanese reproductive rights and liberties in light of recent developments in disability studies. Masae Kato asks important questions about what constitutes personhood and how, in the twenty-first century, we come to understand eugenic abortion and other bioethical arguments. Tracing the origin and influence of the concept of a "right," the author places the term in local social and historical contexts in order to determine that it still carries overtones of Anglo-American philosophy, rather than universal truth. Digging deeply into Japanese debates on selective abortion, Women's Right? discusses how this charged term can be both de-Westernized and de-masculinized, especially in its appropriations by the Japanese women's movement and disability scholars.

Dit boek verkent het concept 'recht'. Hoe dit concept een rol heeft gespeeld in het veroorzaken van onenigheid en misvatting tussen bewegingen van gehandicapte mensen en vrouwen met betrekking tot de kwestie van selectieve abortus in Japan. Tegelijkertijd, probeert de schrijfster om het concept van recht te ontwesteren en te demasculiniseren door erover te theoretiseren hoe deze twee bewegingen de term interpreteerden, ondersteunden en in praktijk brachten. Zij laat ook zien dat het concept niet universeel is.