Research
My research agenda consists of three areas:
- Applying theories of justice to vulnerable populations
- Feminist perspectives on the distribution and recognition of caregiving work
- Accommodating students with disabilities in the classroom
1. Applying Theories of Justice to Vulnerable Populations
Recent advances in medical technology raise many ethically complex situations in the health care professions. For example, many people with cognitive disabilities such as autism, mental retardation, and dementia are living longer and at higher levels of functioning than previously anticipated. Although positive for the individual, these advances pose new challenges to families and society.
Many philosophers and bioethicists base their theories on the ideal notion that moral persons must possess a certain minimal level of rationality. On this traditional view, people with cognitive disabilities do not count as moral persons. Nonetheless, they are among the most vulnerable members of society because they depend on daily care to keep them safe and healthy and often lack sufficient capacity to report and protest harms of abuse, neglect, and exploitation. Contemporary political theories fail to recognize such harms as injustices, and thus provide an inadequate model for the care of people with cognitive disabilities.
In past research I have examined how philosophical views of moral personhood apply to bioethical considerations of prenatal genetic testing, sex selection and single embryo transfer. In investigating the comparison between gender and mental retardation as disadvantaged categories, I have argued that both are socially constructed to some extent, and that both categories affect quality of life and health outcomes.
I am developing an extension of John Rawls's theory of justice that accommodates vulnerable populations who are traditionally placed on the margins of moral personhood. My ultimate goal is to develop a theoretical framework for health policy that recognizes vulnerability and dependence (along with rationality) as traits that characterize moral persons. This framework will distinguish between two kinds of harms to vulnerable populations: some harms may be unavoidable elements of their lives, while other harms can be identified as foreseeably and preventably caused by features of the health policies that serve them. I plan to establish a conceptual foundation for specifying the content of rights held by members of vulnerable populations. I would like to discover whether the content of rights held by people with cognitive disabilities will differ substantially from the content of rights held by people with physical disabilities.
I am currently collaborating with two colleagues on a project entitled Personhood and Justice for People Labeled "Mentally Retarded." Licia Carlson examines the dissonances within philosophical discourse that explain why some bioethicists continue to make egregious mistakes such as considering people labeled as "mentally retarded" as being morally equivalent to non-human animals. My task is to argue for a rights-based theory under which people labeled as "mentally retarded" are entitled to just treatment in access to health care, education, and inclusion in the social and political community. In contrast to my position, Anna Stubblefield challenges the viability of the label "mentally retarded" and similar labels. She argues instead that we need a framework that protects the rights of people labeled as "mentally retarded" without having to preserve the category.
I have also assisted in organizing a conference on the philosophy of cognitive disability that will take place in September 2008 at Stony Brook University.
2. Feminist perspectives on the distribution and recognition of caregiving work
Feminist theorists characterize the concept of care as thoughtful, intentional work that requires considerable time, attention, energy and financial resources. Research has shown that many caregivers experience a decline in overall health when compared with their peers. In Canada and in the US, care for the chronically ill, the frail elderly, and individuals with physical and cognitive disabilities is often provided by unpaid family members, or by underpaid and underprivileged workers on the margins of society. Compared to their (relatively unburdened) neighbors, these caregivers have less time, less energy, and hence fewer opportunities to participate in their social, cultural, and political communities. Although they have valuable perspectives to share, their voices are absent from public discussions about health policy because they are on the front lines of care. Furthermore, caregivers are often too busy looking after their charges to speak up for their own interests, which often diverge (or may run counter to) the interests of those they serve.
I seek to explain why those engaged in the work of caring for people with disabilities consistently find themselves at a distinct disadvantage when interacting with those unburdened by these and other comparable caregiving responsibilities. I plan to conduct research investigating whether the fact that caregivers do not have equal opportunities to participate is merely a matter of bad luck for which no one is responsible. My tentative hypothesis is that this is no accident; rather, specific features of health and social policies are key factors in the many disadvantages experienced by caregivers. I have started collecting informal narratives by siblings and parents of people with disabilities, in which they draw connections between their unchosen work as caregivers and their adjusted/diminished expectations in making career and family plans. I want to explore ways of distributing the burdens of caregiving more equitably among all members of our communities.
3. Accommodating students with disabilities in the classroom
This project is a collaboration with Klaudia Rivera and Susan Baglieri in the School of Education at Long Island University, which serves a diverse student body in undergraduate and graduate education. The goal of our project is to create alliances and have conversations about developing more inclusive practices across the fields of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), Special Education, and Philosophy. We interpret our experiences in relation to multiple facets of postsecondary education. We address program design, classroom teaching, and ways of evaluating our students toward a vision of university teaching that acknowledges and values the spectrum of diverse students.
As my contribution to this project I explore the following question: When a student's disability prevents her from successfully performing a necessary learning objective, should instructors waive this requirement? An intrinsic feature of good teaching is requiring students to attempt tasks more difficult than what they have so far accomplished, but making accommodations for students with disabilities may have the unintended negative effect of lowering the instructor's expectations. As instructors, we want to avoid self-fulfilling prophecies in which these students end up performing below their potential. Acquiescing to students' perceived limitations by allowing them to opt out of whatever they "cannot" do may reinforce their internalized self-doubt as students with disabilities. The instructor must therefore find ways of making accommodations that maintain high standards and continue to challenge students to perform as well as they can. I argue that rather than waiving specific course requirements for students with disabilities, instructors should instead structure all course requirements to accommodate a variety of learning approaches. Such methods enhance all students' potential for learning philosophy, regardless of their disability status.