Some speculations on matters of touch

Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 26 (4):387 – 404 (2001)
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Abstract

In this essay, I examine the question of whether it is possible that the encounter with the other could be mediated such that the interval of distance would lose its determining power. I reflect on some instances of extraordinary corporeality, most particularly the phenomenon of conjoined twins, in order to problematize the relation between subjects as they are embodied. Where the normative body is supposedly marked out by the closed boundaries of the skin, the figuration of the anomalous body as potentially leaky and contaminatory positions it as being of prime concern to both medical and cultural discourse. Within those paradigms there are of course many pressing bioethical issues to debate, but my intention is to draw back from a problem-based scenario in order to consider the threshold of ethics in the self/other relation itself.

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Citations of this work

Feminist Phenomenology and Medicine.Kristin Zeiler & Lisa Folkmarson Käll (eds.) - 2014 - State University of New York Press.
Introduction: Feminist Phenomenology, Medicine, Bioethics, and Health.Lauren Freeman - 2018 - International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics 11 (2):1-13.
Visceral Phenomenology.Margrit Shildrick - 2014 - In Kristin Zeiler & Lisa Folkmarson Käll (eds.), Feminist Phenomenology and Medicine. State University of New York Press. pp. 47-68.

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