Katy Fulfer

Philosophy in the world

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Empathy and altruism in surrogacy

Below is the text of my presentation for today's annual SMF Research Symposium hosted by the Sexuality, Marriage, and Family Studies department at St. Jerome's University/University of Waterloo. I post it here to facilitate better accessibility. Territorial acknowledgement I am a philosopher who primarily works in women’s and gender studies. Much of the content of my research in reproductive ethics has to do with access: Who has access to fertility? To what treatments and technologies? To … [Read more...]

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Human rights and the family

When people describe their workplace or community group as if they're "like family," my neck hair rises. I am suspicious, and immediately skeptical about the stability of the organization being described. If I were a Kelpien, my threat ganglia would extend whenever someone made this kind of reference. Let me be clear: I am not anti-family. I love families! Yay families! I'm just skeptical that family structures are good models for social or political groups to adopt. Arendt's critique of … [Read more...]

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The “practice” in practicing self-care

A few years ago, I began using the acronym PREP in my teaching. It indicates to my students the learning methods I find most helpful: Prepare, Reflect, Engage, and Practice Self-Care. Throughout the semester, I check in about how PREP is working for them, if they use it. Some students are surprised to see self-care mentioned, others feel supported by it. There's always a range of responses about how students incorporate that final "p" of the acronym. Here's my check-in about self-care. I'm … [Read more...]

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Health Canada report summarizes feedback on reimbursements for surrogacy and egg donation

In 2016 and 2017 Health Canada solicited feedback related to drafting regulations to clarify sections of the Assisted Human Reproduction Act. This month they released the "What We Heard Report," which disseminates feedback received from the summer 2017 call for public comments. This consultation focused on health and safety issues with gamete donation (section 10), reimbursement for expenses in egg donation and surrogacy (section 12), and enforcing and administering the Act (sections … [Read more...]

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2017, my year of fancy rats

I was born in the year of the rat, under the Chinese zodiac. I took this to be a SIGN when I decided to adopt fancy rats in early 2017. On January 7, 2017 I brought home three fancy rats from the Humane Society: Xena, Gabrielle, and Dottie-Callisto. Gabrielle, one of my first fancy rat companions This is not a post that represents "philosophy in the world." I am using this post as an opportunity to share publicly some memories of my rat Gabrielle, who passed away on December 21. If you read … [Read more...]