[1][2] Emerging around the end of the twentieth century, feminist bioethics is a diverse academic field involving the use of social, philosophical, and feminist theories to examine and criticize gender biases and inequalities implied in bioethical problems, theories, and methodologies.
[8] These early articles focused largely on bioethical issues related to technologies connected to female reproductive concerns, such as abortion, IVF, and surrogacy.
Feminist bioethics can disagree with each other about what should be viewed as being in women's best interest, due to the diversity of opinion in the field.
In 1988, a research on the effects of aspirin in decreasing the risk of heart disease was conducted by Physician Health Study, It investigated 22,000 men and zero women.
[16] In 1990, the United States Government Accountability Office reported that women were not sufficiently represented in clinical trials.
Feminist bioethics argues that hormonal fluctuation should be considered an important factor in medical research rather than be ignored, and that clinical trials should be designed to accommodate women's lives and working schedules.
Since the ancient era of human history, women have been viewed as inferior to men physically, emotionally, and intellectually.
Emotion being viewed as something lower and less desirable than reason implies a general lack of concern and compassion for patients' individual situations.
[2] The result is a pattern of abstraction: patients and medical professionals are viewed not as distinct persons but as interchangeable subjects with generic characteristics operating under universal principles.
[18] One view is that the level of achievable health is tied to power differences caused by gender, race, and class.
[23] Certain common practices in the healthcare system often assume and reinforce gender roles that disproportionately harm women.
For example, a woman does not have autonomy over her own fertility, because she needs to obtain consent from her husband to get herself sterilized; on the other hand, vasectomy for a man can be done in a week.