Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Tables and Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Ethics and Weapons of Mass Destruction
- Introduction
- 1 Weapons of Mass Destruction: A Brief Overview
- 2 The International Law Concerning Weapons of Mass Destruction
- PART ONE THE ORIGINAL DEBATE
- PART TWO EXPANDING THE CONVERSATION
- PART THREE CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES
- 21 A Feminist Ethical Perspective on Weapons of Mass Destruction
- 22 A Pragmatist Feminist Approach to the Ethics of Weapons of Mass Destruction
- 23 Pacifism and Weapons of Mass Destruction
- 24 Pacifism and Weapons of Mass Destruction: The Challenge of Peace
- 25 Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Limits of Moral Understanding: A Comparative Essay
- Contributors
- Index
21 - A Feminist Ethical Perspective on Weapons of Mass Destruction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Tables and Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Ethics and Weapons of Mass Destruction
- Introduction
- 1 Weapons of Mass Destruction: A Brief Overview
- 2 The International Law Concerning Weapons of Mass Destruction
- PART ONE THE ORIGINAL DEBATE
- PART TWO EXPANDING THE CONVERSATION
- PART THREE CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES
- 21 A Feminist Ethical Perspective on Weapons of Mass Destruction
- 22 A Pragmatist Feminist Approach to the Ethics of Weapons of Mass Destruction
- 23 Pacifism and Weapons of Mass Destruction
- 24 Pacifism and Weapons of Mass Destruction: The Challenge of Peace
- 25 Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Limits of Moral Understanding: A Comparative Essay
- Contributors
- Index
Summary
The world will note that the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a military base. That was because we wished in this first attack to avoid, insofar as possible, the killing of civilians.
President Harry Truman, August 9, 1945I heard her voice calling “Mother, Mother.” I went towards the sound. She was completely burned. The skin had come off her head altogether, leaving a twisted knot at the top. My daughter said, “Mother, you're late, please take me back quickly.” She said it was hurting a lot. But there were no doctors. There was nothing I could do. So I covered up her naked body and held her in my arms for nine hours. At about eleven o'clock that night she cried out again “Mother,” and put her hand around my neck. It was already ice-cold. I said, “Please say Mother again.” But that was the last time.
A Hiroshima survivorWe are reporting on a feminist tradition that we label antiwar feminism. We consider ourselves inheritors of this tradition and draw on it to formulate a position on weapons of mass destruction. To put our position briefly: Antiwar feminism rejects both the military and political use of weapons of mass destruction in warfare or for deterrence. It is also deeply critical of the discourses that have framed public discussion of weapons of mass destruction.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Ethics and Weapons of Mass DestructionReligious and Secular Perspectives, pp. 405 - 435Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004
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