Download or read book Down s Syndrome Screening and Reproductive Politics written by Gareth M. Thomas and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-03-16 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Down s Syndrome Screening and Reproductive Politics written by Gareth M. Thomas and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-03-16 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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
Download or read book Screening for Down s Syndrome written by J. G. Grudzinskas and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1994-11-17 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This important new publication summarises the recent exciting advances in screening for Down's syndrome. It addresses important clinical questions such as: risk assessment, who to screen, when to screen, which techniques to use, and the organisation of screening programmes nationally and internationally. An international and authoritative team of authors has been invited to assess the latest developments in this rapidly advancing area. The volume provides a critical and much needed evaluation of the potential and limitations of new and established techniques for screening for Down's syndrome. It will serve as an essential source of information for all those involved in pre-natal diagnosis and the provision of obstetric care.
Download or read book Testing Women Testing the Fetus written by Rayna Rapp and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2004-11-23 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Assessing Genetic Risks written by Institute of Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1994-01-01 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Choosing Down Syndrome written by Chris Kaposy and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2018-04-06 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book The Tentative Pregnancy written by Barbara Katz Rothman and published by Penguin Group. This book was released on 1987 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Disability Normalcy and the Everyday written by Gareth M. Thomas and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-03-09 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many critical analyses of disability address important ‘macro’ concerns, but are often far removed from an interactional and micro-level focus. Written by leading scholars in the field, and containing a range of theoretical and empirical contributions from around the world, this book focuses on the taken-for-granted, mundane human activities at the heart of how social life is reproduced, and how this impacts on the lives of those with a disability, family members, and other allies. It departs from earlier accounts by making sense of how disability is lived, mobilised, and enacted in everyday lives. Although broad in focus and navigating diverse social contexts, chapters are united by a concern with foregrounding micro, mundane moments for making sense of powerful discourses, practices, affects, relations, and world-making for disabled people and their allies. Using different examples – including learning disabilities, cerebral palsy, dementia, polio, and Parkinson’s disease – contributions move beyond a simplified narrow classification of disability which creates rigid categories of existence and denies bodily variation. Disability, Normalcy, and the Everyday should be considered essential reading for disability studies students and academics, as well as professionals involved in health and social care. With contributions located within new and familiar debates around embodiment, stigma, gender, identity, inequality, care, ethics, choice, materiality, youth, and representation, this book will be of interest to academics from different disciplinary backgrounds including sociology, anthropology, humanities, public health, allied health professions, science and technology studies, social work, and social policy.
Download or read book Prenatal Testing and Disability Rights written by Erik Parens and published by Georgetown University Press. This book was released on 2000-09-28 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As prenatal tests proliferate, the medical and broader communities perceive that such testing is a logical extension of good prenatal care—it helps parents have healthy babies. But prenatal tests have been criticized by the disability rights community, which contends that advances in science should be directed at improving their lives, not preventing them. Used primarily to decide to abort a fetus that would have been born with mental or physical impairments, prenatal tests arguably reinforce discrimination against and misconceptions about people with disabilities. In these essays, people on both sides of the issue engage in an honest and occasionally painful debate about prenatal testing and selective abortion. The contributors include both people who live with and people who theorize about disabilities, scholars from the social sciences and humanities, medical geneticists, genetic counselors, physicians, and lawyers. Although the essayists don't arrive at a consensus over the disability community's objections to prenatal testing and its consequences, they do offer recommendations for ameliorating some of the problems associated with the practice.
Download or read book The Abortion Act 1967 written by Sally Sheldon and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2022-11-30 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Biography of the Abortion Act, exploring how it was shaped by and shaped a changing UK.
Download or read book Disease Control Priorities Third Edition Volume 2 written by Robert Black and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2016-04-11 with total page 419 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The evaluation of reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health (RMNCH) by the Disease Control Priorities, Third Edition (DCP3) focuses on maternal conditions, childhood illness, and malnutrition. Specifically, the chapters address acute illness and undernutrition in children, principally under age 5. It also covers maternal mortality, morbidity, stillbirth, and influences to pregnancy and pre-pregnancy. Volume 3 focuses on developments since the publication of DCP2 and will also include the transition to older childhood, in particular, the overlap and commonality with the child development volume. The DCP3 evaluation of these conditions produced three key findings: 1. There is significant difficulty in measuring the burden of key conditions such as unintended pregnancy, unsafe abortion, nonsexually transmitted infections, infertility, and violence against women. 2. Investments in the continuum of care can have significant returns for improved and equitable access, health, poverty, and health systems. 3. There is a large difference in how RMNCH conditions affect different income groups; investments in RMNCH can lessen the disparity in terms of both health and financial risk.
Download or read book Mackenzie s Mission written by Rachael Casella and published by Allen & Unwin. This book was released on 2020-06-02 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A story of triumph over adversity, the strength that can be found in love and kindness, and the power of one couple to effect positive change in the world. 'A true love story' - Mia Freedman, founder of Mamamia Rachael and Jonathan were thrilled to welcome their baby Mackenzie into the world and to start their new lives as parents. Little did they know that in a few months they would be tested to endurance and beyond. Like many other couples starting a family, Rachael and Jonathan had no idea they were both carriers for a genetic disease, and that 1 in 20 babies are affected by genetic birth defects. Their daughter was one of those babies, and Mackenzie's Mission is Rachael's beautiful and heartwarming account of Mackenzie's life, child loss, and a journey through IVF. Determined that other couples should not go through the same heartbreak, Rachael and Jonathan are now champions for genetic testing. This is a story of triumph over adversity, the strength that can be found in kindness and the power of one couple to effect positive change in the world. 'Heartbreaking and inspiring. A must read for anyone who's lost a child, loved a child, or is desperately trying to for a child. You will cry but you will also find comfort in this incredible story.' - Erin Molan, sports presenter, Nine Network 'A book about grief and finding purpose through unimaginable loss and heartbreak. Beautiful Mackenzie will continue to have a powerful impact on this world through the work of her remarkable parents.' - Libby Trickett, Olympic swimming gold medallist and author of Beneath the Surface 'The most extraordinary story of a mother's love and her daughter's legacy.' - Marcia Leone, creator of Not So Mumsy
Download or read book An Ordinary Future written by Thomas W Pearson and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2023-09-05 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This vivid portrait of contemporary parenting blends memoir and cultural analysis to explore evolving ideas of disability and human difference. An Ordinary Future is a deeply moving work that weaves an account of Margaret Mead's path to disability rights activism with one anthropologist's experience as the parent of a child with Down syndrome. With this book, Thomas W. Pearson confronts the dominant ideas, disturbing contradictions, and dramatic transformations that have shaped our perspectives on disability over the last century. Pearson examines his family's story through the lens of Mead's evolving relationship to disability—a topic once so stigmatized that she advised Erik Erikson to institutionalize his son, born with Down syndrome in 1944. Over the course of her career, Mead would become an advocate for disability rights and call on anthropology to embrace a wider understanding of humanity that values diverse bodies and minds. Powerful and personal, An Ordinary Future reveals why this call is still relevant in the ongoing fight for disability justice and inclusion, while shedding light on the history of Down syndrome and how we raise children born different.
Download or read book Genetic Ethics written by Colin Farrelly and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2018-10-22 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Colin Farrelly contemplates the various ethical and social quandaries raised by the genetic revolution. Recent biomedical advances such as genetic screening, gene therapy and genome editing might be used to promote equality of opportunity, reproductive freedom, healthy aging, and the prevention and treatment of disease. But these technologies also raise a host of ethical questions: Is the idea of “genetically engineering” humans a morally objectionable form of eugenics? Should parents undergoing IVF be permitted to screen embryos for the sex of their offspring? Would it be ethical to alter the rate at which humans age, greatly increasing longevity at a time when the human population is already at potentially unsustainable levels? Farrelly applies an original virtue ethics framework to assess these and other challenges posed by the genetic revolution. Chapters discuss virtue ethics in relation to eugenics, infectious and chronic disease, evolutionary biology, epigenetics, happiness, reproductive freedom and longevity. This fresh approach creates a roadmap for thinking ethically about technological progress that will be of practical use to ethicists and scientists for years to come. Accessible in tone and compellingly argued, this book is an ideal introduction for students of bioethics, applied ethics, biomedical sciences, and related courses in philosophy and life sciences.
Download or read book D pistage G n tique Et la Vie Priv e written by Privacy Commissioner of Canada and published by Commissaire à la protection de la vie privée. This book was released on 1992 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report gives a simplified description of the scientific fundamentals of genetic testing and describes its present applications; establishes broad privacy principles to guide both the public and private sectors on testing matters; examines specifically how the Privacy Act regulates genetic testing by government institutions; and addresses the growing need to consider regulating private sector genetic testing. A summary of positions taken by other countries and international organizations on privacy and genetic testing is also included.
Download or read book Reducing Birth Defects written by Institute of Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2003-10-27 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Each year more than 4 million children are born with birth defects. This book highlights the unprecedented opportunity to improve the lives of children and families in developing countries by preventing some birth defects and reducing the consequences of others. A number of developing countries with more comprehensive health care systems are making significant progress in the prevention and care of birth defects. In many other developing countries, however, policymakers have limited knowledge of the negative impact of birth defects and are largely unaware of the affordable and effective interventions available to reduce the impact of certain conditions. Reducing Birth Defects: Meeting the Challenge in the Developing World includes descriptions of successful programs and presents a plan of action to address critical gaps in the understanding, prevention, and treatment of birth defects in developing countries. This study also recommends capacity building, priority research, and institutional and global efforts to reduce the incidence and impact of birth defects in developing countries.
Download or read book Prenatal Genetic Testing Abortion and Disability Justice written by Amber Knight and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2023-03-23 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
