• all posts on marriage,  event

    Beyond Marriage: Philosophy, Politics, Law

    I am the convenor of this international and interdisciplinary conference held in Cambridge in May 2019.

    There have been significant changes to the institution of marriage in recent years, with many countries introducing same-sex marriage, civil partnerships, and other forms of non-traditional union. For some, marriage is a central institution that must be protected, for others it is inevitably unjust and should be abolished.

    This conference will bring together academics and practitioners from philosophy, politics, and law to debate what lies beyond marriage. The programme includes:

    Dr Rebecca Steinfeld, claimant in Steinfeld and Keidan v. Secretary of State, “The Equal Civil Partnerships Campaign”

    Tim Loughton MP, “Equal Civil Partnerships in the House of Commons”

    Andrew Harrop, General Secretary, Fabian Society, “Marriage and the Left”

    Jo Miles, Law, University of Cambridge, “Against Civil Partnership”

    Prof Robert Wintemute, Law, King’s College London, “Equal Choices for All Couples:  From Same-Sex Civil Partnership to Equal Marriage to Steinfeld & Keidan”.

    Prof Lori Watson, Philosophy, San Diego University, “Polygamy and Equality”

    Dr Samia Bano, Law, SOAS, “Muslim Marriage in the UK”

    Dr Clare Chambers, Philosophy, University of Cambridge, “The Marriage-Free State”

    Prof Elizabeth Brake, Philosophy, Arizona State University, “Minimal Marriage”

    Chairs: 
    Dr Jude Browne, Centre for Gender Studies, University of Cambridge
    Prof Ralph Wedgwood, Philosophy, University of Southern California
    Dr Findlay Stark, Law, University of Cambridge
    Dr Tom Dougherty, Philosophy, University of Cambridge

    You can read more about the conference here.

  • all posts on culture and religion,  all posts on the body and beauty,  articles,  multiculturalism and religion,  the body

    Medically unnecessary genital cutting and the child’s right to bodily integrity: an international expert consensus statement

    In American Journal of Bioethics Vol. 19 (2019).

    Keeping our focus exclusively on a Western context for the purposes of this article, we argue as follows: Under most conditions, cutting any person’s genitals without their informed consent is a serious violation of their right to bodily integrity. As such, it is morally impermissible unless the person is nonautonomous (incapable of consent) and the cutting is medically necessary.

    This paper is authored by the Brussels Collaboration on Bodily Integrity (2019).

    This work grew out of informal discussions among participants in the G3 International Experts Meeting on FGM/C in Brussels, Belgium, May 20-22, 2019, along with other scholarly collaborators. We are physicians, ethicists, nurse-midwives, public health professionals, legal scholars, political scientists, anthropologists, psychologists, sociologists, philosophers, and feminists from Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas with interdisciplinary expertise in child genital cutting practices across a wide range of cultural contexts. 

    You can read the paper here.

    Corresponding author: Brian D. Earp, Associate Director, Yale-Hastings Program in Ethics and Health Policy, Yale University and The Hastings Center, 2 Hillhouse Avenue, New Haven, CT, 06511, USA. E-mail: brian.earp@gmail.co