ABSTRACT

In this chapter I focus on a notion of reproductive entitlement based on women’s moral claims in the area of reproduction and the healthcare related to this, claims which are largely articulated in relation to the social expectations and responsibilities surrounding fertility, sexuality and motherhood. Following Petchesky and Judd (1998), I suggest that an emphasis on moral claims is in contrast to a focus on what the state or law owes women and the formal, legal language of rights which is often experienced in the form of the state imposing rights. The language of claims is different from that of rights as it is shaped in terms of the force of cultural expectations, obligations and responsibilities placed upon women and men, which is reinforced or changed through practice and further mediated by their desires, aspirations and life circumstances.2 The concept of moral claims, as Petchesky and Judd emphasise, goes beyond the notion of ‘needs’ as it entails a conviction of the moral rightness of one’s claim, incorporating both a sense of authority and a sense of aspiration (1998: 13). In her criticism of the legal language of human rights, Hastrup (this volume) also stresses the significance of a focus on moral agency within a shared social space (also, for example, Das 1995, 1997; Asad 1997; Farmer 1999).3