Fr. 40.90

The Stork and the Syringe - A Political History of Reproductive Medicine

English · Paperback / Softback

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Description

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Reproductive technology is typically discussed in the future tense. Yet doctors have always treated involuntary childlessness. This book looks at the recent history of infertility and the different ways medicine has treated it. It traces the reluctance to allow infertility a past to a new tension that has emerged between utopian and anti-utopian fears about the growth rate and composition of population. The Stork and the Syringe argues that although doctors' approach to infertility is formed in response to the exigencies of the political economy of medical practice, it also accommodates a persistent gender bias: the tendency to regard women's bodies as inviting intervention and men's as demanding caution. This bias is manifest in relation to gametes (eggs and sperm), sex hormones, in the form of medical investigations and treatment, and the frequency and enthusiasm with which the latter are carried out. Departures from this theme are rare and controversial, as the history of artificial insemination using donor semen demonstrates.
This book is a major contribution to the history and sociology of reproduction, fertility, population and medicine.


List of contents










Introduction. 1. Talking about Infertility.
2. Norms and Deviations.
3. Images of Sterility.
4. Politics, Health and Sterility.
5. A Crutch in the Crotch.
6. Bank Accounts and Babies.
Notes.


About the author










Naomi Pfeffer writes about history and social policy. She has a long-standing interest in women's experience of infertility and the politics of reproductive medicine, and has written extensively on the subject. She was the co-author of The Experience of Infertility, written with Anne Woollett.

Summary

* This is one of the first books to look at the history of infertility. The author argues that there is a hidden history of involuntary childlessness* This book analyses why the medical profession dislikes examining the male reproductive system.

Product details

Authors N Pfeffer, Naomi Pfeffer, Naomi (Independent Scholar) Pfeffer
Publisher Polity Press
 
Languages English
Product format Paperback / Softback
Released 08.12.1993
 
EAN 9780745611877
ISBN 978-0-7456-1187-7
No. of pages 250
Dimensions 152 mm x 228 mm x 20 mm
Weight 367 g
Series Feminist Perspectives
Feminist Perspectives
Subjects Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Medicine > Non-clinical medicine
Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Sociological theories

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