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Jennifer Parks, PhD

Professor; Bioethics Minor Director


Jennifer Parks is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Undergraduate Bioethics Minor Program at Loyola University. Her areas of specialization include health care ethics (with special interests in reproductive technologies and end of life issues), feminist theory (with a focus on care ethics), and social philosophy. She is currently working on medical aid in dying and global issues in reproductive technologies.

She has written a number of books, including No Place Like Home? Feminist Ethics and Home Health Care (2003), Bioethics in a Changing World (co-authored with Victoria Wike, 2009), and Ethics, Aging, and Society: The Critical Turn (co-authored with Martha Holstein and Mark Waymack, 2011). She has also published a variety of articles which have been printed in such journals as The Hastings Center Report, Bioethics, Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, The International Journal of Applied Philosophy, and the Journal of Medical Humanities.

Dr. Parks teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses in health care ethics, feminist theory, disability theory, reproductive ethics, and aging and ethics. She is faculty advisor and coach for Loyola's undergraduate Ethics Bowl and Bioethics Bowl teams.

Education

PhD, McMaster University
MA, Queens University, Ontario 
BA, Queens University, Ontario 

Research Interests

Feminist Moral Theory, Women's Reproductive Health, Health Care Ethics, Aging and Long-Term Care, Medical Aid in Dying

Books

  • Ethics, Aging, and Society: The Critical Turn. Springer Publishing. 2010. With Martha Holstein and Mark Waymack.
    Ethics, Aging and Society...is the first major work in ten years to critically address issues and methodologies in aging and ethics...This well-organized volume begins theoretically and offers new ways of thinking about ethics that can handle the complexities and realities of aging in particular social contexts."--Choice This new research-based book, by experts in the field of ethics, is excellent…Read more
  • Bioethics in a Changing World. With Victoria S. Wike.
  • This book analyzes practices in the home health care industry and concludes that they are highly exploitative of both workers and patients. Under the existing system, underpaid workers are expected to perform tasks for which they are inadequately trained, in unreasonably short periods of time. This situation harms workers and puts home health care patients at risk. To the extent that the majority …Read more

Published articles

  • Supervaluation of pregnant women is reductive of women. Journal of Medical Ethics 50 (1): 29-30. 2024. With Timothy F. Murphy.
    Robinson argues that by certain threshold criteria, pregnant women qualify for a higher moral status by reason of their pregnancies. While her intention is to make this a status upgrade for women, we worry that it may result in a status downgrade for women as a class, by presupposing and reinforcing women’s value in relation to their reproductive labour. Historically, central to feminist analysis …Read more
  • Degendering Parents on Birth Certificates. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 66 (4): 579-594. 2023. With Timothy E. Murphy.
    Abstractabstract:Birth certificates typically designate parents as "mothers" or "fathers," although some US states offer nongendered designations. The authors argue that gendered characterizations offer scant legal or moral value and that states should move to degender parental status on birth certificates but retain that information in registrations of birth. Registrations of birth identify the p…Read more
  • McLeod's Conscience in Reproductive Health Care and Its Relationship to Reproductive Freedom and Faith-Based Healthcare. International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics 15 (2): 153-160. 2022.
    Carolyn McLeod's book is timely and important, especially when one considers the state of conscientious objection in a country like the United States. During his presidency, Donald Trump announced an expanded "conscience rule" for healthcare workers according to which they would have the protected right to morally and religiously oppose a variety of procedures, including abortion, sterilization, a…Read more
  • Lonely Deaths: Dying in Nursing Homes during COVID-19. International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics 15 (1): 135-137. 2022. With Maria Howard.
    Our 2021 article, "Dying Well in Nursing Homes During COVID-19 and Beyond: The Need for a Relational and Familial Ethic," addresses the response to the COVID-19 pandemic within nursing homes and the impact it had on the lives of residents, care providers, and families. We acknowledge that, at the height of the pandemic, when infection and death rates were soaring in these facilities, extreme "lock…Read more
  • This paper applies a relational and familial ethic to address concerns relating to nursing home deaths and advance care planning during Covid‐19 and beyond. The deaths of our elderly in nursing homes during this pandemic have been made more complicated by the restriction of visitors even at the end of life, a time when families would normally be present. While we must be vigilant about preventing …Read more
  • Gestation as mothering. Bioethics 34 (9): 960-968. 2020. With Timothy F. Murphy.
    Some commentators maintain that gestational surrogates are not ‘mothers’ in a way capable of grounding a claim to motherhood. These commentators find that the practices that constitute motherhood do not extend to gestational surrogates. We argue that gestational surrogates should be construed as mothers of the children they bear, even if they fully intend to surrender those children at birth to th…Read more
  • So not mothers: responsibility for surrogate orphans. Journal of Medical Ethics 44 (8): 551-554. 2018. With Timothy F. Murphy.
    The law ordinarily recognises the woman who gives birth as the mother of a child, but in certain jurisdictions, it will recognise the commissioning couple as the legal parents of a child born to a commercial surrogate. Some commissioning parents have, however, effectively abandoned the children they commission, and in such cases, commercial surrogates may find themselves facing unexpected maternal…Read more
  • This essay addresses feminist approaches to medical aid in dying (MAID), considering whether it is a practice that should be supported for women and other marginalized groups. Some feminists have raised rights and justice-based arguments in support of MAID; others have taken a care-based approach to suggest that the practice violates relationships of care and only worsens distrust between marginal…Read more
  • Home-Based Care, Technology, and the Maintenance of Selves. HEC Forum 27 (2): 127-141. 2015.
    In this paper, I will argue that there is a deep connection between home-based care, technology, and the self. Providing the means for persons to receive care at home is not merely a kindness that respects their preference to be at home: it is an important means of extending their selfhood and respecting the unique selves that they are. Home-based technologies like telemedicine and robotic care ma…Read more
  • Aged Parenting through ART and Other Means. In Carolyn MacLeod Francois Baylis (ed.), Family-Making: Contemporary Ethical Challenges, Oxford University Press. pp. 287-312. 2014.
  • Feminist issues in domestic and transnational surrogacy: The case of Japan. International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics 7 (2): 121-143. 2014.
    I consider how a feminist account might address the practice of surrogacy in Japan, both domestically and in the transnational context. Japanese culture emphasizes traditional values, family heritage, and the value of reproduction. Japan offers an interesting case study, since surrogacy is currently under review, and the government is in the process of determining its stance on the practice. I wil…Read more
  • This paper treats the political and ethical issues associated with the new caretaking technologies. Given the number of feminists who have raised serious concerns about the future of care work in the United States, and who have been critical of the degree to which society “free rides” on women's caretaking labor, I consider whether technology may provide a solution to this problem. Certainly, if w…Read more
  • This essay will focus on the moral issues relating to surrogacy in the global context, and will critique the liberal arguments that have been offered in support of it. Liberal arguments hold sway concerning reproductive arrangements made between commissioning couples from wealthy nations and the surrogates from socioeconomically weak backgrounds that they hire to do their reproductive labor. My ar…Read more
  • Radical feminists have argued for both the radical potential of assisted reproductive technology (ART) and its oppressive and damaging effects for women. This paper will address the question of what constitutes a radical feminist position on ART; I will argue that the very debate over whether ART liberates or oppresses women is misguided, and that instead the issue should be understood dialectical…Read more
  • Genes, Women, Equality. Hypatia 20 (2): 200-202. 2005.
  • Genes, Women, and Equality. Hypatia 20 (1): 214-217. 2005.
  • A Call for Gender Equity in Medical Tort Reform. Apa Newsletter on Philosophy and Medicine. 2004.
    This paper will consider ethical issues arising from medical tort litigation. I will argue that deep changes are required to ensure fairness in litigation and in order to hold morally responsible those corporations that take unnecessary risks with consumers’ lives.
  • Grin and Bare It. Philosophy in the Contemporary World 11 (1): 45-53. 2004.
    This paper considers the issues surrounding women’s bare-breastedness and breastfeeding in public. I argue that women should have equal freedoms with men to bare their breasts in public, but not for the reasons commonly cited Proponents of “the public breast” tend to focus on the similarities between women’s and men’s breasts; I argue that the sameness versus difference debate is unhelpful in reso…Read more
  • Grin and Bare It. Philosophy in the Contemporary World 11 (1): 45-53. 2004.
    This paper considers the issues surrounding women’s bare-breastedness and breastfeeding in public. I argue that women should have equal freedoms with men to bare their breasts in public, but not for the reasons commonly cited Proponents of “the public breast” tend to focus on the similarities between women’s and men’s breasts; I argue that the sameness versus difference debate is unhelpful in reso…Read more
  • Envisioning a Kinder, gentler world: On recognition and remuneration for care workers. Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 24 (6): 489-499. 2003.
    In this paper, I argue that thestatus of those who take care of persons withdisabilities, and persons with disabilities,are inextricably linked. That is, devaluingthe status of one necessarily devalues that ofthe other. Persons with disabilities and thosewho help care for them must form an alliance toadvance their common interests. This alliancecan gain insight and inspiration from feministthought…Read more
  • Gender and Euthanasia. Hastings Center Report 30 (4): 4. 2000.
  • Are women's requests for aid in dying honored more often than men's, or less? Feminist arguments can support conclusions either that gendered perceptions of women as self‐sacrificing predispose physicians to accede to women's requests to die — or that cultural understandings of women as not fully rational agents lead physicians to reject their requests as irrational.
  • On the Use of IVF by Post-menopausal Women. Hypatia 14 (1): 77-96. 1999.
    Nonfeminist accounts of post-menopausal IVF reject the practice on four main grounds: I) scarcity of resources; 2) fairness; 3) the “inappropriateness” of post-menopausal motherhood; and 4) concerns for orphaned children. I argue that these grounds are insufficient for denying post-menopausal women IVF access. I then suggest that a feminist evaluation of the practice is more compelling; ultimately…Read more
  • On the use of IVF by post-menopausal women. Hypatia 14 (1): 77-96. 1999.
    : Nonfeminist accounts of post-menopausal IVF reject the practice on four main grounds: 1) scarcity of resources; 2) fairness; 3) the "inappropriateness" of post-menopausal motherhood; and 4) concerns for orphaned children. I argue that these grounds are insufficient for denying post-menopausal women IVF access. I then suggest that a feminist evaluation of the practice is more compelling; ultimate…Read more
  • Ethical Androcentrism and Maternal Substance Addiction. International Journal of Applied Philosophy 13 (2): 165-175. 1999.
    In this paper, I argue that bioethics suffers from a masculinist approach-what I call “ethical androcentrism.” Despite the genesis of other legitimate approaches to ethics (such as feminist, narrative, and communicative ethics), this masculinist tradition persists. The first part of my paper concerns the problem of ethical androcentrism, and how it is manifest in our typical ways of “doing” bioeth…Read more
  • A Contextualized Approach to Patient Autonomy Within the Therapeutic Relationship. Journal of Medical Humanities 19 (4): 299-311. 1998.
    Some authors have advanced a contractual model to protect patient autonomy within the therapeutic relationship. Such a conception of the physician–patient relationship is intended to serve both parties by respecting patients' choices and preserving physician integrity. I critique this contractual view and offer an alternative, feminist contextualized approach to autonomy within the therapeutic r…Read more

Book reviews

Dissertation

  • On the Call for a Feminist Notion of Autonomy in Biomedical Ethics. Dissertation, Mcmaster University (Canada). 1996.
    In this thesis I argue that the received view of autonomy is insufficient for both biomedical ethics and feminist theory. I begin with an examination of the received view of autonomy; I then indicate the way in which this view of autonomy has been applied to health care ethics. A feminist relational approach to autonomy is explored: I argue that such an approach has many strengths in that it gives…Read more