ETHICS and LIFE WRITING : -W' mr-" G. Thomas Couser Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019 with funding from The Arcadia Fund https://archive.org/details/vulnerablesubjecOOcous Vulnerable Subjecto Ethics and Life Writing G. THOMAS COUSER Cornell University Press / Ithaca and London Copyright © 2004 by Cornell University All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850. First published 2004 by Cornell University Press First printing, Cornell Paperbacks, 2004 Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Couser, G. Thomas. Vulnerable subjects : ethics and life writing / G. Thomas Couser. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8014-4185-4 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-8014-8863-X (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. Autobiography—Moral and ethical aspects. 2. Ethics. I. Title. CT25.C698 2004 920'.001—dc2i 2003010655 Cornell University Press strives to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the fullest extent possible in the publishing of its books. Such materials include vegetable-based, low-VOC inks and acid-free papers that are recycled, totally chlorine-free, or partly composed of nonwood fibers. For further information, visit our website at www.cornellpress.comell.edu. Cloth printing 10 987654321 Paperback printing 10 987654321 To Jane Couser Barton Contents Preface: Auto / Bio / Ethics ix 1 Consensual Relations: Life Writing and Betrayal 1 2 Auto/Biographical, Biomedical, and Ethnographic Ethics 14 3 Making, Taking, and Faking Lives: Voice and Vulnerability in Collaborative Life Writing 34 4 Adoption, Disability, and Surrogacy: The Ethics of Parental Life Writing in The Broken Cord 36 3 Beyond the Clinic: Oliver Sacks and the Ethics of Neuroanthropology 74 6 Life Writing as Death Writing: Disability and Euthanography 123 7 Genome and Genre: DNA and Life Writing 163 Epilogue: Writing Wrongs: In Defense of Ethical Criticism 198 Notes 203 Works Cited 219 Index 231 .