Abstract

This essay refutes the charge of relativism levied against religious approaches to bioethics by using Jewish bioethics as a case study. I demonstrate how an approach to ethics that includes particular spiritualities need not be essentialist but can better respect a patient's values, goals, and priorities. Recognizing the value of listening to silenced voices and showing how the identification of a nonhomogenous group can yield important insights for ethics, feminist approaches have paved the way for a reintroduction of religious approaches to mainstream ethical discourse.