Title:
The social worlds of the unborn / Deborah Lupton.
Author:
Lupton, Deborah, author.
Publication Information:
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York, NY : Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
Call Number:
QM611 .L87 2013
Abstract:
In the contemporary world, the unborn - human embryos and foetuses - are highly public and contested figures. Their visual images appear across a wide range of forums, from YouTube videos to pregnancy handbooks. They have become commercial commodities as part of the IVF industry, reproductive tourism and stem cell research and regenerative medicine. The unborn are the focus of intense debates concerning concepts of personhood and humanness, especially in relation to abortion politics and the use and disposal of embryos created outside the human body. The "Social Worlds of the Unborn" is the first book-length work to discuss all of these issues and more, drawing on social and cultural theory and research and empirical research to do so. It will be of interest to academics and students in a multitude of disciplines, including sociology, anthropology, philosophy, bioethics, gender studies, media and cultural studies and science and technology studies.
ISBN:
9781137310712
Series:
Palgrave pivot
Palgrave pivot.
Physical Description:
vii, 153 pages ; 23 cm.
Contents:
Machine generated contents note: 1. Contingencies of the Unborn -- Personhood, humanness and the unborn -- Histories of the unborn -- The importance of definitions -- Concluding comments -- 2. Imaging the Unborn -- Obstetric ultrasound: from medical diagnostic tool to `baby pictures' -- Photojournalism and computer visualisations -- The unborn as cultural artefacts -- The politics of unborn imagery -- Concluding comments -- 3. The Unborn within the Self: Women's Experiences of Pregnancy -- Ambiguities of pregnancy: the two-in-one body -- How pregnant women conceptualise the unborn -- The role of imaging technologies in pregnant subjectivity -- Attaching/detaching: the maternal/unborn `bond' -- Concluding comments -- 4. Death, Disposal and the Unborn -- Cultural variants in attitudes towards abortion -- Women's experiences of elective abortion -- Decisions about disposal -- Bioscientific research and definitions of the unborn -- Mourning and memorialising unborn death.
Contents note continued: Concluding comments -- 5. The Endangered Unborn -- Risk and the reproductive citizen -- The `public pregnancy': women's experiences -- The foetal citizen -- Eugenics and the relative value of the unborn -- Concluding comments -- Final Thoughts.
Personal Author:
Copies:
