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Ethics relating to Parenting, Families and Children

ParentsWe have a longstanding interest in the ethics of parenthood, parenting and reproduction. Our interests in this area mostly relate to normative questions around how the rights and responsibilities of parents/putative parents are characterised and justified at various stages of one’s ‘parental life’; be that prior to conception, during or after birth, or post family separation.


Previous projects



Recent publications

Boardman, F. 2017. Why we should be worried about gene carrier screening, The Conversation, 2nd August,https://theconversation.com/why-we-should-be-worried-about-gene-carrier-screening-81124

Boardman, F. 2017. Experience as Knowledge: Disability, Distillation and (Reprogenetic) Decision-Making, Social Science & Medicine, 191: 186-193.

Boardman, F. 2016. Should we edit out genetic disease? The Conversation, 9th May,https://theconversation.com/should-we-edit-out-genetic-disease-58654

Boardman, F. 2016. Identity, disability and the genome. Bionews, 11th April, issue 846, http://www.bionews.org.uk/page_638169.asp

Burnell, P., Hulton, S., Draper, H. Coercion and choice in parent-child live kidney donation. Journal of Medical Ethics 2015; 41: 304-309.

Boardman, F. 2014. The expressivist objection to prenatal testing: the experiences of families living with genetic disease, Social Science & Medicine, 107, 18-25.

Boardman, F. 2014. Knowledge is Power? The Role of Experiential Knowledge in Genetically ‘Risky’ Reproductive Decisions Sociology of Health & Illness, 36 (1): 137-150.

Draper, H. Martha as a mother: parents, parental choices and preimplantation selection. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics. 2014; 23(1): 8-18.

Draper, H Ives, J Men's involvement in antenatal care and labour: Rethinking a medical model – Midwifery 2013; 29(7): 723-9.

Boardman, F. 2013. Screening Dilemmas: Disease, Disability or Something In-Between? Bionews 25th November, issue 732, http://www.bionews.org.uk/page_365114.asp

Boardman, F. 2013. Experiential knowledge of disability, impairment and illness: the reproductive decisions of families genetically at risk, Health, 18 (5), 476-492.

Draper H., Grandparents' entitlements and obligations Bioethics 2013 27(6): 309-316 (open access)

Boardman, F. 2011. Negotiating Discourses of Maternal Responsibility, Disability and Reprogenetics in Lewiecki-Wilson, C. and J. Cellio (eds) Disability and Mothering: Liminal Spaces of Embodied Knowledge, Syracuse University Press.

Griffiths, F., Lowe, P., Boardman, F. Ayre, C. and R. Gadsby. 2008. Becoming Pregnant: Exploring the Perspectives of Women living with Diabetes, British Journal of General Practice, 58 (548) pp. 184-190.