Naomi Pfeffer

The Stork and the Syringe

A Political History of Reproductive Medicine

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

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.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Polity Press
• Seitenzahl: 250
• Erscheinungstermin: 8. Dezember 1993
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 228mm x 152mm x 20mm
• Gewicht: 367g
• ISBN-13: 9780745611877
• ISBN-10: 0745611877
• Artikelnr.: 23526730

Autorenporträt

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.

Inhaltsangabe

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.