Down's Syndrome Screening and Reproductive Politics

2017-03-16
Down's Syndrome Screening and Reproductive Politics

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  • Author: Gareth M. Thomas
  • Publisher: Routledge
  • ISBN: 1317338200
  • Category : Health & Fitness
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 251

Nominated for the Foundation of Sociology of Health and Illness Book Prize 2018 In the UK and beyond, Down’s syndrome screening has become a universal programme in prenatal care. But why does screening persist, particularly in light of research that highlights pregnant women’s ambivalent and problematic experiences with it? Drawing on an ethnography of Down’s syndrome screening in two UK clinics, Thomas explores how and why we are so invested in this practice and what effects this has on those involved. Informed by theoretical approaches that privilege the mundane and micro practices, discourses, materials, and rituals of everyday life, Down’s Syndrome Screening and Reproductive Politics describes the banal world of the clinic and, in particular, the professionals contained within it who are responsible for delivering this programme. In so doing, it illustrates how Down’s syndrome screening is ‘downgraded’ and subsequently stabilised as a ‘routine’ part of a pregnancy. Further, the book captures how this routinisation is deepened by a systematic, but subtle, framing of Down’s syndrome as a negative pregnancy outcome. By unpacking the complex relationships between professionals, parents, technology, policy, and clinical practice, Thomas identifies how and why screening is successfully routinised and how it is embroiled in both new and familiar debates surrounding pregnancy, ethics, choice, diagnosis, care, disability, and parenthood. The book will appeal to academics, students, and professionals interested in medical sociology, medical anthropology, science and technology studies (STS), bioethics, genetics, and/or disability studies.

Down's Syndrome Screening and Reproductive Politics

2017-03-16
Down's Syndrome Screening and Reproductive Politics

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  • Author: Gareth M. Thomas
  • Publisher: Taylor & Francis
  • ISBN: 1317338219
  • Category : Health & Fitness
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 221

Documents an important yet much neglected practice in prenatal medicine Provides a challenging new perspective on how ethically-challenging biomedical technologies are routinised and normalised in a contentious context Offers in-depth research for key debates in sociology, anthropology, bioethics, genetics, and STS Explores how ideas around disability are reproduced in the clinic and feed into wider discourses about disablement in Western culture

The Straight Line

2015-11-20
The Straight Line

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  • Author: Tom Waidzunas
  • Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
  • ISBN: 1452945527
  • Category : Social Science
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 350

To be taken seriously, therapies that claim to “cure” homosexuality wrap themselves in lab coats. Even though the fit is bad, and such therapies and their theorists now inhabit the scientific fringe, the science of sexuality has made some adjustments, too, Tom Waidzunas tells us in this provocative work. Intervening in the politics of sexuality and science, The Straight Line argues that scientific definitions of sexual orientation do not merely reflect the results of investigations into human nature, but rather emerge through a process of social negotiation between opposing groups. The demedicalization of homosexuality and the discrediting of reparative therapies, ex-gay ministries, and reorientation research have, Waidzunas contends, required scientists to enforce key boundaries around scientific expertise and research methods. Drawing on extensive participant observation at conferences for ex-gays, reorientation therapists, mainstream psychologists, and survivors of ex-gay therapy, as well as interviews with experts and activists, The Straight Line traces reorientation debates in the United States from the 1950s to the present, following homosexuality therapies from the mainstream to the margins. As the ex-gay movement has become increasingly transnational in recent years, Waidzunas turns to Uganda, where ideas about the scientific nature of homosexuality influenced the passage of the Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2014. While most studies treat the ex-gay movement as a religious phenomenon, this book looks at how the movement, in its attempts to establish legitimacy, has engaged with scientific institutions, shaping virulent anti-gay public policy.

Assessing Genetic Risks

1994-01-01
Assessing Genetic Risks

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  • Author: Institute of Medicine
  • Publisher: National Academies Press
  • ISBN: 0309047986
  • Category : Medical
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 353

Raising hopes for disease treatment and prevention, but also the specter of discrimination and "designer genes," genetic testing is potentially one of the most socially explosive developments of our time. This book presents a current assessment of this rapidly evolving field, offering principles for actions and research and recommendations on key issues in genetic testing and screening. Advantages of early genetic knowledge are balanced with issues associated with such knowledge: availability of treatment, privacy and discrimination, personal decision-making, public health objectives, cost, and more. Among the important issues covered: Quality control in genetic testing. Appropriate roles for public agencies, private health practitioners, and laboratories. Value-neutral education and counseling for persons considering testing. Use of test results in insurance, employment, and other settings.

Testing Women, Testing the Fetus

2004-11-23
Testing Women, Testing the Fetus

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  • Author: Rayna Rapp
  • Publisher: Routledge
  • ISBN: 1135963916
  • Category : Social Science
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 376

Rich with the voices and stories of participants, these touching, firsthand accounts examine how women of diverse racial, ethnic, class and religious backgrounds perceive prenatal testing, the most prevalent and routinized of the new reproducing technologies. Based on the author's decade of research and her own personal experiences with amniocentesis, Testing Women, Testing the Fetus explores the "geneticization" of family life in all its complexity and diversity.

Immigration and Metropolitan Revitalization in the United States

2017-04-25
Immigration and Metropolitan Revitalization in the United States

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  • Author: Domenic Vitiello
  • Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
  • ISBN: 0812249127
  • Category : Political Science
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 216

After decades of urban crisis, American cities and suburbs have revived, thanks largely to immigration. This is the first book to explore the phenomenon, from big cities such as New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, to newer destinations such as Nashville and suburban Boston and New Jersey.

Genomic Politics

2021-08-03
Genomic Politics

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  • Author: Jennifer Hochschild
  • Publisher: Oxford University Press
  • ISBN: 0197550754
  • Category : Political Science
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 337

A groundbreaking analysis of how the genomic revolution is transforming American society and creating new social divisions-some along racial lines-that promise to fundamentally shape American politics for years to come. The emergence of genomic science in the last quarter century has revolutionized medicine, the justice system, and our very understanding of who we are. We use genomics to determine guilt and exonerate the convicted; devise new medicines; test embryos; and discover our ethnic and national roots. One might think that, given these advances, most would favor the availability of genomic tools. Yet as Jennifer Hochschild explains in More Science, Less Fear?, the uses of genomic science are both politically charged and hotly contested. The political divisions around genomics do not follow the usual left-right ideological divides that dominate most of American politics. Through four controversial innovations resulting from genomic science--genetically modified medicines that target African-Americans, who are demographically more susceptible to heart disease; the use of DNA evidence in the criminal justice system; the current ancestry craze; and the use of genetic tests in prenatal exams--Hochschild reveals how the phenomenon is polarizing America in novel ways. Advocates of genomic science argue that these applications will make life better, but their opponents respond by pointing out the potential for misuse--from racial profiling to "selecting out" fetuses that gene tests show to have conditions like Down's Syndrome. Hochschild's central message is that the divide hinges on answers to two questions: How significant are genetic factors in explaining human traits and behaviors? And what is the right balance between risk acceptance and risk avoidance for a society grappling with innovations arising from genomic science? A deeply researched and original analysis of the politics surrounding one of the signal issues of our times, this is essential reading for anyone interested in how the genetics revolution is reshaping society.

Prenatal Genetic Testing, Abortion, and Disability Justice

2023-02-22
Prenatal Genetic Testing, Abortion, and Disability Justice

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  • Author: Amber Knight
  • Publisher: Oxford University Press
  • ISBN: 0192698583
  • Category : Political Science
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 225

The routinization of non-invasive prenatal genetic testing (NIPT) raises urgent questions about disability rights and reproductive justice. Supporters defend NIPT on the grounds that genetic information about the fetus helps would-be parents make better family planning choices. Prenatal Genetic Testing, Abortion, and Disability Justice challenges that assessment by exploring how NIPT can actually constrain pregnant women's options. Prospective parents must balance a complicated array of factors, including the familial, social, and financial support they can reasonably expect to receive if they choose to carry a disabled fetus to term and raise after birth, causing many pregnant women to “choose” termination. Focusing on the US, the book explores the intent and effects of prenatal screening in connection to women's bodily autonomy and disability rights, addressing themes at the intersection of genetic medicine, policymaking, critical disabilities studies, and political theory. Knight and Miller shift debates about reprogenetics from bioethics to political practice, as well as thoroughly critiquing the neoliberal state and the eugenic technologies that support it. Providing concrete suggestions for reforming medical practice, welfare policy, and cultural norms surrounding disability, this book highlights sites of necessary reform to envision how prospective parents can make truly free choices about prenatal genetic testing and selection abortion.

Choosing Down Syndrome

2018-04-06
Choosing Down Syndrome

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  • Author: Chris Kaposy
  • Publisher: MIT Press
  • ISBN: 0262037718
  • Category : Science
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 237

An argument that more people should have children with Down syndrome, written from a pro-choice, disability-positive perspective. The rate at which parents choose to terminate a pregnancy when prenatal tests indicate that the fetus has Down syndrome is between 60 and 90 percent. In Choosing Down Syndrome, Chris Kaposy offers a carefully reasoned ethical argument in favor of choosing to have such a child. Arguing from a pro-choice, disability-positive perspective, Kaposy makes the case that there is a common social bias against cognitive disability that influences decisions about prenatal testing and terminating pregnancies, and that more people should resist this bias by having children with Down syndrome. Drawing on accounts by parents of children with Down syndrome, and arguing for their objectivity, Kaposy finds that these parents see themselves and their families as having benefitted from having a child with Down syndrome. To counter those who might characterize these accounts as based on self-deception or expressing adaptive preference, Kaposy cites supporting evidence, including divorce rates and observational studies showing that families including children with Down syndrome typically function well. Himself the father of a child with Down syndrome, Kaposy argues that cognitive disability associated with Down syndrome does not lead to diminished well-being. He argues further that parental expectations are influenced by neoliberal ideologies that unduly focus on the supposed diminished economic potential of a person with Down syndrome. Kaposy does not advocate restricting access to abortion or prenatal testing for Down syndrome, and he does not argue that it is ethically mandatory in all cases to give birth to a child with Down syndrome. People should be free to make important decisions based on their values. Kaposy's argument shows that it may be consistent with their values to welcome a child with Down syndrome into the family.

The Tentative Pregnancy

1987
The Tentative Pregnancy

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  • Author: Barbara Katz Rothman
  • Publisher: Penguin Group
  • ISBN:
  • Category : Family & Relationships
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 298