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"Konrad has produced an exceptionally interesting and totally
original book . . . a major contribution to social theory." .
Marilyn Strathern, Cambridge University Based on the author's
fieldwork at assisted conception clinics in England in the
mid-1990s, this is the first ethnographic study of the new
procreative practices of anonymous ova and embryo donation. Giving
voice to both groups of women participating in the demanding
donation experience - the donors on the one side and the
ever-hopeful IVF recipients on the other - Konrad shows how one
dimension of the new reproductive technologies involves an
unfamiliar relatedness between nameless and untraceable procreative
strangers. Offsetting informants' local narratives against
traditional Western folk models of the 'sexed' reproductive body,
the book challenges some of the basic assumptions underlying
conventional biomedical discourse of altruistic donation that
clinicians and others promote as "gifts of life." It brings
together a wide variety of literatures from social anthropology,
social theory, cultural studies of science and technology, and
feminist bioethics to discuss the relationship between recent
developments in biotechnology and changing conceptions of personal
origins, genealogy, kinship, biological ownership and notions of
bodily integrity.
As bio-capital in the form of medical knowledge, skills and
investments moves with greater frequency from its origin in First
World industrialized settings to resource-poor communities with
weak or little infrastructure, countries with emerging economies
are starting to expand new indigenous science bases of their own.
The case studies here, from the UK, West Africa, Sri Lanka, Papua
New Guinea, Latin America and elsewhere, explore the forms of
collaborative knowledge relations in play and the effects of ethics
review and legal systems on local communities, and also demonstrate
how anthropologically-informed insights may hope to influence key
policy debates. Questions of governance in science and technology,
as well as ethical issues related to bio-innovation, are
increasingly being featured as topics of complex resourcing and
international debate, and this volume is a much-needed resource for
interdisciplinary practitioners and specialists in medical
anthropology, social theory, corporate ethics, science and
technology studies.
Based on the author's fieldwork at assisted conception clinics in
England in the mid-1990s, this is the first ethnographic study of
the new procreative practices of anonymous ova and embryo donation.
Giving voice to both groups of women participating in the demanding
donation experience - the donors on the one side and the
ever-hopeful IVF recipients on the other - Konrad shows how one
dimension of the new reproductive technologies involves an
unfamiliar relatedness between nameless and untraceable procreative
strangers. Offsetting informants' local narratives against
traditional Western folk models of the 'sexed' reproductive body,
the book challenges some of the basic assumptions underlying
conventional biomedical discourse of altruistic donation that
clinicians and others promote as "gifts of life." It brings
together a wide variety of literatures from social anthropology,
social theory, cultural studies of science and technology, and
feminist bioethics to discuss the relationship between recent
developments in biotechnology and changing conceptions of personal
origins, genealogy, kinship, biological ownership and notions of
bodily integrity.
This book explores the way changes in technology have altered the
relationship between ethics and medicine. For some inherited
diseases, new genetic testing technologies may provide much more
accurate diagnostic and predictive information which raises
important questions about consent, confidentiality and use of the
information by family members and other third parties. What are the
implications of this knowledge for individuals and their families?
And for society more widely? How should this new information be
used? How do people deal with the choices that new knowledge and
technologies offer? Drawing on extensive ethnographic research with
families affected by Huntington's Disease, and using perspectives
from medical and cultural anthropology, the author explores the
huge disparity between the experience of living with the results of
genetic testing and the knowledge and expertise which are drawn on
to develop policy and clinical services.
This book explores the way changes in technology have altered the
relationship between ethics and medicine. For some inherited
diseases, new genetic testing technologies may provide much more
accurate diagnostic and predictive information which raises
important questions about consent, confidentiality and use of the
information by family members and other third parties. What are the
implications of this knowledge for individuals and their families?
And for society more widely? How should this new information be
used? How do people deal with the choices that new knowledge and
technologies offer? Drawing on extensive ethnographic research with
families affected by Huntington's Disease, and using perspectives
from medical and cultural anthropology, the author explores the
huge disparity between the experience of living with the results of
genetic testing and the knowledge and expertise which are drawn on
to develop policy and clinical services.
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