The individualistic tradition of autonomy has been charged as “inimical to many women” (Code, 2000) in particular, for several reasons. It might be, firstly, more difficult for women to access this kind of individualism. Personal autonomy understood in the individualistic sense constitutes a resource that is unjustly denied to women, or even something that men often attain at the expense of those women…In most history, we tend to be in patriarchal society where women either are an asset or a burden. Women are not acknowledged for the underlying work that they put in. Although my family has adopted the modern western ideology, it is inevitable that often women-side of my family have to ultimately sacrifice their career for their child. I have heard this happened to my grandmother as well as have seen my mom go through it. So, I agree with this passage that oftentimes, personal autonomy becomes an irrelevant thing for women as men take advantage of that.
Kant claimed that agents must act in accordance with reason “and to identify with those rational regulations” (Formosa, 2013, p. 194) if they are to be morally autonomous. This passage resonates with me mainly because I am a pre-med student and interested in Bioethics. Kant claimed that moral autonomy is not just following the standard rule but implementing morals beliefs in one’s own reasoning, which I think can apply to Bioethics. It is a fairly modern field where a lot of times what defines ethics is up for a person’s rational decision. Instead of having one justified way to be morally right, when it comes to ethics, a lot of time it can be self-determined through individual reasonings.
For the proceduralist, autonomy is about figuring out what makes someone's desires, preferences, choices, etc. one's own – that is, what makes them authentic to the individual. This commitment naturally generates the corresponding desideratum that agents attain conditions under which authenticity is possible. I find this passage to sum up well on what an autonomy is. To describe the term, it can be influenced by others but the decision should be yours. For example, I can be influenced by my family to follow a certain path after high school then college but the final say in that decision should be mine. That is exactly how it is described in the passage that autonomy should be authentic to oneself, whether it’s making a decision or acting upon it.