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From super-wicked problems to more-than-human justice: new bioethical frameworks for antimicrobial resistance and climate emergency.

Tiia SudenkaarneAndrea Butcher
Published in: Monash bioethics review (2024)
In this article, building on our multidisciplinary expertise on philosophy, anthropology, and social study of microbes, we discuss and analyze new approaches to justice that have emerged in thinking with more-than-human contexts: microbes, animals, environments and ecosystems. We situate our analysis in theory of and practical engagements with antimicrobial resistance and climate emergency that both can be considered super-wicked problems. In offering solutions to such problems, we discuss a more-than-human justice orientation, seeking to displace human exceptionalism while still engaging with human social justice issues. We offer anthropological narratives to highlight how more-than-human actors already play an important role in environmental and climate politics. These narratives further justify the need for new ethical frameworks, out of which we, for further development outside the scope of this article, suggest a queer feminist posthumanist one.
Keyphrases
  • endothelial cells
  • antimicrobial resistance
  • mental health
  • induced pluripotent stem cells
  • healthcare
  • pluripotent stem cells
  • climate change
  • public health
  • risk assessment
  • mental illness
  • quality improvement