Ethical perspectives on femtech: Moving from concerns to capability-sensitive designs

Naomi Jacobs*, Jenneke Evers

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)
128 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Femtech is the collective name for technologies that address female health needs. Femtech applications can help women digitally track their period, manage their fertility, and support their pregnancy. Although femtech has beneficial potential, there are various ethical concerns to be raised with current femtech apps. In this article, we discuss three of the main ethical concerns with femtech apps regarding (1) medical reliability, (2) privacy, and (3) gender stereotyping and epistemic injustice, and we explore how Capability Sensitive Design, a novel design framework for health and well-being technologies, is able to mitigate these concerns and help create morally sensitive femtech.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)430-439
Number of pages10
JournalBioethics
Volume37
Issue number5
Early online date20 Feb 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2023

Keywords

  • Capability Sensitive Design
  • digital health technology
  • ethics by design
  • femtech
  • fertility apps
  • period tracking
  • UT-Hybrid-D

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