Description
Book SynopsisThis book will interest students, scholars, health professionals, administrators, and activists interested in issues surrounding new medical technologies, screening, risk management, pregnancy, disability, and the history and social politics of women's bodies.
Trade ReviewIf you are a supporter or a critic of prenatal testing, or, like many people, decidedly ambiguous, there is much that you will learn [from
Imperfect Pregnancies] and much that will make you pause and re-examine your own views and knowledge base.
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DNA ExchangeAbove all, it is a rational, erudite, thoughtful – and thought-provoking – account of a major change in the experience of pregnancy which has come about largely unnoticed.
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British Society for the History of MedicineThe author expertly navigates the reader through history and follows the rise of biomedical technologies that have made prenatal diagnosis possible... This book will benefit students, academics, health professionals and activists interested in issues surrounding new medical technologies, screening, risk management, pregnancy, disability, and the history and social politics of women's bodies.
—Elaine Williams, Innovation Lead & Freedom To Speak Up Guardian, Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust,
Nursing TimesThis highly readable book is important for historians of twentieth century medicine, sociologists of reproduction and bioethicists reflecting on "the beginning of life"... In a field of study beset by vehement rhetoric and bigotry, Löwy's reserved and metered style is a blessing, perhaps a precondition for fruitful reflection... Ilana Löwy sets the stage for the bioethical discourse on prenatal diagnosis and choice as a tug of war with three poles—the autonomy of the person as a woman and a mother, the good of the child, and fundamental social values such as respect for human life, reliable medical science and services, justice and solidarity.
—Y. M. Barilan, Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel,
Medicine, Health Care and PhilosophySince its early stages, prenatal diagnosis has been balancing between the promises of safer pregnancies and healthier babies, and the dangers of its use for eugenic purposes. Ilana Löwy goes beyond this, and eloquently shows the limitations of such a dichotomised analysis . . . Löwy summons a wide range of disciplinary fields to solidly support this historical and comparative analysis of this field of research and medical practice, offering an unbiased yet critical approach.
—Mario J.D.S. Santos, Instituto Universitário de Lisboa,
Sociology of Health and IllnessLöwy gives a very useful overview of the growth of prenatal diagnostic technologies and the expansion of prenatal diagnosis from a small group of women with at-risk pregnancies to ever wider circles.
—Marion Schmidt, Georg August Universität,
H-DisabilityAn accomplished piece of scholarship,
Imperfect Pregnancies will be necessary reading for students and historians of medicine and medical technology, particularly those interested in a comparative perspective. Lowy's book places current debates about disabilities, reproductive technologies, and abortion in an essential historical context. It encourages scholars to think more about the complicated implications of supposedly progressive medical and technological advances, provides a synthesis of the main developments in biomedical technology in the twentieth century, and paves the way for future specialized research.
—Cara Delay, Ph.D., College of Charleston,
Journal of the History of Medicine & Allied SciencesTable of ContentsPreface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Born Imperfect
2. Karyotypes
3. Human Malformations
4. From Prenatal Diagnosis to Prenatal Screening
5. Sex Chromosome Aneuploidies
6. Prenatal Diagnosis and New Genomic Approaches
Conclusion
Notes
Index
