Sarah Franklin

Nadat een arts is aangeklaagd wegens foutief medisch handelen, komt zijn zwager hem en zijn gezin te hulp om de waarheid boven tafel te krijgen.

New reproductive technologies, such as in vitro fertilisation, have been the subject of intense public discussion and debate worldwide. In addition to difficult ethical, moral, personal and political questions, new techniques of assisted conception also raise novel socio-cultural dilemmas. How are parenthood, kinship and procreation being redefined in the context of new reproductive technologies? Has reproductive choice become part of consumer culture? Embodied Progress offers a unique perspective on these and other cultural dimensions of assisted conception techniques.

Are new reproductive and genetic technologies racing ahead of a society that is unable to establish limits to their use? Have the "new genetics" outpaced our ability to control their future applications? This book examines the case of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), the procedure used to prevent serious genetic disease by embryo selection, and the so-called "designer baby" method. Using detailed empirical evidence, the authors show that far from being a runaway technology, the regulation of PGD over the past fifteen years provides an example of precaution and restraint, as well as continual adaptation to changing social circumstances. Through interviews, media and policy analysis, and participant observation at two PGD centers in the United Kingdom, Born and Made provides an in-depth sociological examination of the competing moral obligations that define the experience of PGD. Among the many novel findings of this pathbreaking ethnography of reproductive biomedicine is the prominence of uncertainty and ambivalence among PGD patients and professionals--a finding characteristic of the emerging "biosociety," in which scientific progress is inherently paradoxical and contradictory. In contrast to much of the speculative futurology that defines this field, Born and Made provides a timely and revealing case study of the on-the-ground decision-making that shapes technological assistance to human heredity.

The will was outrageous, scandalous ...and legal! Inherited wealth sure wasn't what it was cracked up to be, what with Lyle Hetherington hell-bent on making Kelsa's life one unpleasant confrontation after another. Mind you, Kelsa could certainly understand why Lyle might feel a bit peeved. His father had left her--a mere employee--half of his vast empire. And while Kelsa had gotten on well with her late boss, a bequest like that was ridiculous! So why in the world had he done it? It certainly wasn't for the reason his son arrogantly assumed, as Kelsa hadn't been the old man's mistress. But try telling that to Lyle Hetherington!

Focusing on the key themes of power, kinship, and technological innovation, this volume offers a set of carefully argued studies that emphasize the importance of ethnographic method, as well as anthropological theory, to current debates about the reproductive processes of humans, animals, and plants. Reproducing Reproduction addresses these debates in a range of sites in which reproduction is being redefined and argues persuasively for a renewed appreciation of the centrality of reproductive politics to cultural and historical change. In chapters on abortion, assisted conception, biodiversity conservation, artificial life sciences, adoption, intellectual property, and prenatal screening, Reproducing Reproduction contends that ideologies of class, nation, health, gender, nature, and kinship have reproductive models at their core. Including prize-winning essays by Charis Cussins and Stefan Helmreich, this volume will be of great interest to a wide audience in the social sciences and health technology fields.