Invisible disabilities

Attached are highlights from the current issue of Ethics, a symposium on disability by some of the leading theorists working on the subject. Highly applicable to current debates surrounding prenatal screening, social welfare, and "invisible disabilities" such as depression, the articles also serve as ruminations on the nature of personhood.

Of special note is an article by N. Ann Davis (McConnell Professor of Human Relations, Pomona College) addressing disabilities that may be indiscernible to others such as chronic pain, depression, or posttraumatic stress disorder. Specifically, Davis explains how meeting able-bodied standards – appearing healthy – is emphasized over actually being healthy, leading both to stigmatization of those we perceive as disabled and a refusal to accept the possibility of life-limiting conditions in those who look just like us.

For more information, please contact swu@press.uchicago.edu or visit www.journals.uchicago.edu/Ethics.

Lawrence C. Becker "Reciprocity, Justice, and Disability"

Anita Silvers and Leslie Pickering Francis "Justice Through Trust: Disability and the "Outlier Problem" in Social Contract Theory"

Jeff McMahan "Causing Disabled People to Exist and Causing People to be Disabled"

Eva Feder Kittay "At the Margins of Moral Personhood"

David Wasserman "The Nonidentity Problem, Disability, and the Role Morality of Prospective Parents"

N. Ann Davis "Invisible Disabilities"

Founded in 1890, Ethics is the leading international journal of moral, political, and legal philosophy. It publishes work from disciplines that have a normative dimension, including philosophy, law, economics, and social and political theory.

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