Synopsis "prosthetic bodies"
among the vast literature on contemporary reproductive technologies, prosthetic bodies stands out in its effective combination of insights, methods, and theories from the history of medicine, constructivist science and technology studies, and feminist theory. the double focus on ivf and related techniques, and fetal treatment and surgery, enables the identification of debatable tendencies within todays reproductive medicine: the translation of ever more medical problems basically unrelated to womens own reproductive health - and, in the case of fetal diagnosis and treatment, sometimes formerly even unrelated to reproduction as such - into medical indications for invasive, often highly experimental interventions in womens bodies. the analyses show how, through the operations and workings of reproductive technologies themselves, as well as a variety of discursive mechanisms within scientific language, todays recasting of mens fertility problems and childrens congenital anomalies as womens reproductive problems comes to appear inevitable. the book challenges the ability of traditional forms of medical ethics and law to adequately identify this incremental process. the careful analyses and arguments in prosthetic bodies will be relevant to students of science and technology, gender studies, philosophy, medical ethics, and law, and others interested in the cultural, ethical, and political ramifications of contemporary reproductive technologies.
