Living Laboratories

by Rowland, Robyn

• ISBN13: 9780253207609
• ISBN10: 0253207606
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1992-10-01
• Publisher: Indiana Univ Pr

Summary

"... convincing and terrifying." -- Fay Weldon"This book provides a highly readable and useful account of reproductive technologies that have become available during the last decade." -- Ethics"... an extremely readable introduction to the world of reproductive technologies." -- New Directions for Women"... paints a graphic picture... The values of the medical science she discusses are essentially those of a patriarchally controlled society in which men have all the tools and information and women must beg for bits and pieces and in which male pressure, aided by legal and technological procedures, is increasingly exerted. The book is thoroughly documented... "  -- Booklist"... compelling and comprehensive... " -- American Journal of SociologyIn the last ten years, women have been specifically targeted as "living laboratories" for experimentation, whether to limit their fertility or to end their infertility. Rowland explores the use of women as raw material in the drive for profit and power. In her investigation, the effect of new reproductive technologies is clear: the increasing alienation of people from reproduction and the increased control by medical science and the state over the "quality" of children born.

Author Biography

ROBYN ROWLAND is a social psychologist and Senior Lecturer in Women's Studies at Deakin University. She has published widely on reproductive technology and is a contributor to many books in this area, including Test-tube Women: What Future for Motherhood? and Man-Made Women: How Reproductive Technology Affects Women.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction	p. 1
Motherhood, Medicine and Men: Who's in Control?
In vitro fertilisation: man makes the embryo	p. 17
The masculine dream of quality control: genetic engineering	p. 81
Woman as a dissolving capsule: the challenge of fetal personhood	p. 118
The depersonalisation of birth mothers: so-called 'surrogacy'	p. 156
Setting the Context for Reproductive Control
The values of medical science	p. 202
'Reprospeak': the language of the new reproductive technologies	p. 230
Motherhood and infertility: medical science co-opts ideology and desire	p. 246
Rights, responsibilities and resistance	p. 273
Notes and References	p. 304
Index	p. 345
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.