Defiant Birth
Women Who Resist Medical Eugenics
Published on 28. May 2006
354 pages
978-1-74219-048-8 (ISBN)
Description
Daring women-those who were told not to have their babies due to perceived disabilities in themselves or their unborn children-tell their stories in this controversial book that looks critically at medical eugenics as a contemporary form of social engineering. Believing that all life is valuable and that some are not more worthy of it than others, these women have given birth in the face of disapproval and hostility, defied both the creed of perfection and accepted medical wisdom, and given the issue of abortion a complexity beyond the simplistic pro-life/pro-choice dichotomy. As it questions the accuracy of screening procedures, the definition of a worthwhile life, and the responsiblity for determining the value of an imperfect life, this book trenchantly brings to light many issues that for years have been marginalized by the mainstream media and restricted to disability activism.
More details
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
01/2006
SPINIFEX PRESS
€18.50
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Content
- Book Cover
- Title
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- The medical gaze
- Genetic screening in context: Towards a eugenics civilization
- Lack of choice and the coercive power of testing
- The routinisation of testing
- The right to choose not to know
- The 'benevolent tyranny of expertise'
- No assessment of the cost to women's health
- Questions about risks of ultrasound and amniocentesis
- Agonising decisions based on questionable findings
- Lack of knowledge among medical professionals
- 'They turn the baby into a monster!': Lack of information on disability and support
- Dehumanising and stigmatising labels
- The rise of eugenicist thought
- Birth control and eugenics
- Eugenics and extermination
- The new 'nice' eugenics
- Testing and termination as a bargain: 'Units of handicapped prevented'
- The quest for perfection and the gospel of gene salvation
- Genes, destiny and discrimination
- 'How dare you?': The defiance of disabled women
- What is normal?
- Notes
- THE STORY OF LAYIAH: MY WONDER CHILD
- ALL IS RIGHT WITH MY WORLD
- IT'S ABOUT LOVE
- Why carry a dying child? A mother's perspective
- YOUR BABY WILL DIE: THE STORY OF GRACE
- GIVING LIFE A CHANCE
- FINDING JOY IN THE WEAK AMONG US
- 'THE BEST EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE': HIV-POSITIVE WOMEN ON PREGNANCY AND BIRTH IN AUSTRALIA
- MY CHILDREN HAVE COMPENSATED ME TENFOLD
- THE 'STANDARD OF CARE' WOULD BE TO ABORT MY UNBORN CHILD
- LIVING IN THE SHADOW OF MÖNCHBERG
- Notes
- SO GLAD I LISTENED TO MY HEART
- GABRIEL WAS GOING TO DIE, BUT FIRST HE WAS GOING TO LIVE
- Support for continuing a pregnancy: Perinatal hospice
- I WOULDN'T SWAP THEM FOR ANYTHING
- THIS BABY WOULD BE LOVED
- THE BLESSINGS FAR OUTWEIGH THE SORROWS
- JUST CRASH THROUGH IT
- GO WITH YOUR INSTINCTS
- THEY TOLD ME MY CHILD WOULD WANT A NEW MOTHER
- Postcript
- THE MOST BEAUTIFUL FACE ON EARTH
- Afterword
- Genetic screening and abortion: Ratifying social prejudice through reproductive 'choices'
- The new genetics and apartheid
- Blaming the individual
- The erosion of empathy
- Losing our humanity
- Mutual interdependence
- Notes
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
