The Business Ethics Speakers Series at the Ted Rogers School of Management is pleased to announce:

Alex Wellington
Ryerson Department of Philosophy
“Yes Means Yes, or Does It?: Complexities of Consent for Women’s Reproductive and Sexual Labour”
Thursday March 12, 2015
2pm-3:30pm
Room: TRS 3-129

Defenders of the moral justifiability of commercial surrogacy and the sex trade rely upon variants of market freedom perspectives to support their positions. A market freedom perspective typically rests upon the presumption of capacity to consent, on the part of competent adults, in normal circumstances. Feminist and other critics of commercial surrogacy and the sex trade, by contrast, seemingly attack the presumption of consent, particularly when they advocate for criminal prohibition of the activities of buyers, sellers, and intermediaries or facilitators of market transactions relating to sex and surrogacy. Criminal prohibitions are preferred by some to regulatory oversight. Ultimately, looking more deeply and broadly into the foundations of the contesting positions on commercial surrogacy and the sex trade leads to the realization that even those who are committed to gender equality and social justice should reconsider the advisability of undermining the core concept of consent, and the desirability of criminal prohibitions.