The Dream of the Perfect Child

Author:   Joan Rothschild
Publisher:   Indiana University Press
ISBN:  

9780253345653


Pages:   360
Publication Date:   15 June 2005
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   Awaiting stock   Availability explained


Our Price $158.40 Quantity:  
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The Dream of the Perfect Child


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Full Product Details

Author:   Joan Rothschild
Publisher:   Indiana University Press
Imprint:   Indiana University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.60cm , Height: 3.10cm , Length: 23.50cm
Weight:   0.654kg
ISBN:  

9780253345653


ISBN 10:   0253345650
Pages:   360
Publication Date:   15 June 2005
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Unknown
Availability:   Awaiting stock   Availability explained

Table of Contents

Introduction: Beautifully perfect: The technological dreamI Origins: Enlightenment, evolutionary and eugenic discoursesThe perfectibility of man; the perfect race ; Reformed eugenics and medical geneticsII Framing the discourse of the perfect childThe tools; The doctors: On the trail of the defective fetus; The parents: Only the best and the brightest; Discourses of the imperfectCounter-discoursesBioethics discourse and reproductive practice; Sites of resistance; Transforming the dream of the perfect child

Reviews

Others have addressed the societal implications of contemplating 'the perfect child' but no one has written about it so poignantly, so compellingly, and so beautifully... The best discussion of bioethics and reproductive practices I've seen. Carole Browner, University of California, Los Angeles Science and technology, medical professionals, and parents meet in the doctor's office. This privatized setting is the site for individual decisions: whether to test or not, whether to keep a pregnancy or terminate it, and for which diagnosed 'defect.' Each decision becomes another judgment as to which conditions, and which children, are acceptable or not. As they aggregate over time, individual decisions add up to a selection process, marking the imperfect, those who may be dispensed with, while certifying those worthy to be born. This process constitutes the discourse of the perfect child. from the Introduction


Author Information

Joan Rothschild is professor emerita at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, and research associate at the Center for Human Environments, The Graduate Center, CUNY. She is author of many publications, including Machina Ex Dea: Feminist Perspectives on Technology. She lives in New York City.

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