Conceiving Risk, Bearing Responsibility
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and the Diagnosis of Moral Disorder
Published on 9. January 2004
Book
Hardback
296 pages
978-0-8018-7345-4 (ISBN)
Description
In American society, the consumption of alcohol during pregnancy is considered dangerous, irresponsible and in some cases illegal. Pregnant women who have even a single drink routinely face openly voiced reproach. Yet foetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) in infants and children is notoriously difficult to diagnose, and the relationship between alcohol and adverse birth outcomes is riddled with puzzles and paradoxes. Sociologist Elizabeth M. Armstrong uses foetal alcohol syndrome and the problem of drinking during pregnancy to examine the assumed relationship between somatic and social disorder, the ways in which social problems are individualized, and the intertwining of health and morality that characterizes American society. She traces the evolution of medical knowledge about the effects of alcohol on foetal development, from 19th-century debates about drinking and heredity to the modern diagnosis of FAS and its kindred syndromes.
Armstrong argues that issues of race, class and gender have influenced medical findings about alcohol and reproduction and that these findings have always reflected broader social and moral preoccupations and, in particular, concerns about women's roles and place in society, as well as the fitness of future generations. Medical beliefs about drinking during pregnancy have often ignored the poverty, chaos and insufficiency of some women's lives - factors that may be more responsible than alcohol for adverse outcomes in babies and children. Using primary sources and interviews to explore relationships between doctors and patients and women and their unborn children, Armstrong offers a provocative and detailed analysis of how drinking during pregnancy came to be considered a pervasive social problem, despite the uncertainties surrounding the epidemiology and aetiology of foetal alcohol syndrome.
Armstrong argues that issues of race, class and gender have influenced medical findings about alcohol and reproduction and that these findings have always reflected broader social and moral preoccupations and, in particular, concerns about women's roles and place in society, as well as the fitness of future generations. Medical beliefs about drinking during pregnancy have often ignored the poverty, chaos and insufficiency of some women's lives - factors that may be more responsible than alcohol for adverse outcomes in babies and children. Using primary sources and interviews to explore relationships between doctors and patients and women and their unborn children, Armstrong offers a provocative and detailed analysis of how drinking during pregnancy came to be considered a pervasive social problem, despite the uncertainties surrounding the epidemiology and aetiology of foetal alcohol syndrome.
Reviews / Votes
Easy and interesting to read from a historical as well as from a sociological perspective.-Doody's Book Review Service In this well-written book, Elizabeth Armstrong provides an in-depth analysis of fetal alcohol syndrome as a social problem.
-Virginia Chang, American Journal of Sociology A welcome and long overdue critique of the knowledge production in the United States surrounding alcohol use by pregnant women and the diagnostic category of fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS).
-Social History Excellent . . . FAS, because it is seen as preventable, allows society to blame pregnant women who transgress agreed-upon norms rather than seek solutions to the structural problems that lead to adverse birth outcomes and chronic alcohol consumption in the first place.
-Rebecca Tiger, Theoretical Criminology An interesting and informative exploration of the construction of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) as a major social problem within the US. It combines an historical overview, epidemiological data, and qualitative interviewing to show clearly how moral values affect medical and policy pronouncements.
-Pam Lowe, Sociology of Health and Illness The book succeeds as a social history of the medicalization of FAS.
-Constance Weisner, DrPH, MSW, JAMA Armstrong fully explores how our propensity to apply medical labels to social phenomena is worked out within a particular cultural context.
-Mairead Moloney, Social Forces A well-researched, highly readable, and convincing example of the ways in which modern medicine continues to create myths, stigmatize the poor and pathologize gender.
-Hera Cook, Social History of Medicine A rich and highly readable descriptive account of the gendered politics of moral entrepreneurship in American health research and policy regarding FAS.
-Erica Prussing, Medical Anthropology Quarterly Armstrong draws attention to some important questions about our perceptions of responsibility for alcohol related harm sustained during pregnancy . . . I hope that her book will lead to a healthy debate and a more objective ethical, medical and scientific approach to this field in the future.
-C. C. H. Cook, Addiction An important book that offers a welcome critique of FAS as a social construct.
-Claudia Malacrida, Health There is much to admire in Armstrong's account: her clever deconstruction of the advocates' invented history of FAS, her sure-handed discussion of the politics of reproduction, and her often-fascinating interview material.
-David T. Courtwright, Perspectives in Biology and Medicine
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Baltimore, MD
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
12 s/w Abbildungen
12 Illustrations, black and white
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 26 mm
Weight
544 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8018-7345-4 (9780801873454)
DOI
10.56021/9780801873454
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Elizabeth M. Armstrong
Conceiving Risk, Bearing Responsibility
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and the Diagnosis of Moral Disorder
Book
09/2008
Johns Hopkins University Press
€36.50
Article not available for order
Elizabeth M. Armstrong
Conceiving Risk, Bearing Responsibility
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and the Diagnosis of Moral Disorder
E-Book
09/2008
Johns Hopkins University Press
€29.99
Available for download
Person
Elizabeth M. Armstrong is an assistant professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University.
Content
List of Illustrations and Tables
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1. Conceiving Risk
Chapter 2. The "Question of Alcohol and Offspring" in the Nineteenth Century
Chapter 3. Diagnosing Moral Disorder
Chapter 4. Charting Uncertainty through Doctors' Lenses
Chapter 5. Discordant Depictions of Risk
Chapter 6. Medical-Moral Authority and the Redefinition of Risk in the Twentieth Century
Chapter 7. Bearing Responsibility
Appendix: Data and Methodology for chapter 5 Analyses
Notes
Index
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1. Conceiving Risk
Chapter 2. The "Question of Alcohol and Offspring" in the Nineteenth Century
Chapter 3. Diagnosing Moral Disorder
Chapter 4. Charting Uncertainty through Doctors' Lenses
Chapter 5. Discordant Depictions of Risk
Chapter 6. Medical-Moral Authority and the Redefinition of Risk in the Twentieth Century
Chapter 7. Bearing Responsibility
Appendix: Data and Methodology for chapter 5 Analyses
Notes
Index