Arianne Shahvisi (Brighton & Sussex Medical School)
“Pro-choice” and the limits of reproductive autonomy

“Pro-choice” has assumed a rhetorical power which over-reaches the moral arguments from
which it originates. As the term is co-opted to dovetail with consumer capitalist logics, in line
with a broader trend of interpreting feminism through the fetishisation of choice, it is critical
that the limits of reproductive autonomy be troubled in order to motivate a more careful
demarcation of its rightful scope. I undertake an ethical analysis of “choice,” interrogate the
moral legitimacy of its relationship to feminism, and attempt to establish that various forms of
pre-natal screening and selection do not constitute legitimate exercises of reproductive
autonomy, and should not be permitted to free-ride on the political and historical
particularities which grant reproductive autonomy its moral mandate.

Arianne Shahvisi is a Kurdish-British academic, writer, and activist. She holds a doctorate in
the philosophy of science from the University of Cambridge, and recently joined the Brighton
& Sussex Medical School as a Lecturer in Ethics and Medical Humanities, following two years
at the American University of Beirut. Her current research spans a diverse set of topics in
applied philosophy, including: reproductive ethics, academic freedom, and social
epistemology. She teaches courses on feminist theory, bioethics and political determinants of
health. Arianne serves on the editorial board for "Kohl: a Journal for Body and Gender
Research," a feminist journal on gender and sexuality in the Middle East, South West Asia,
and North Africa regions.