Coming to Life

"This book produces what is for the most part little-known material, the result of recent research, and also contributes a new understanding of some familiar phenomenological material." -- -Amy Mullin University of Toronto Mississauga "The volume contributors, all female philosophy scholars, remedy [a] gap in the literature by approaching questions about reproductive rights, the status of the fetus, and the medicalization of childbirth." -Choice "Very little philosophical attention-and certainly little positive attention-has been paid to women's experiences of pregnancy, childbirth and mothering. Critically focusing on those experiences, this groundbreaking collection explores how pregnancy and childbirth have been portrayed in the philosophical canon; the variety of forms that mothering and motherhood can take; how feminist phenomenology can illuminate the experiences of pregnancy, birth, and miscarriage; ethical and political questions surrounding pregnancy and childbirth; and how pregnancy and mothering are viewed by mainstream media and popular culture. This book is a must-read for feminists and philosophers of all stripes." -- -Shannon Sullivan Pennsylvania State University "Recent years have shown a renewed scholarly interest in motherhood and pregnancy, and Coming to Life: Philosophies of Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Motherhood is an important addition to the literature. Sarah LaChance Adams and Caroline R. Lundquist's anthology is both firmly rooted in philosophical theory and accessible to the non-specialist, a rare combination. In bringing their own experiences as mothers to bear on canonical accounts of personhood and moral theory, contributors to the volume extend the second-wave project of identifying gendered and sexist frameworks underlying seemingly gender-neutral philosophies. New to the literature is Coming to Life's extensive, critical attention to phenomenology, an area of philosophy often seen, incorrectly, as motherhood and pregnancy-friendly. In addition, Dorothy Roger's essay on women who experience pregnancy and/or childbirth, but not motherhood, brings attention to an all too often unrecognized, and certainly under-theorized, phenomenon of women's experience-miscarriage and the giving up of a child for adoption." -- -Maeve O'Donovan Notre Dame of Maryland University "This consistently rigorous and original collection is a joy to read. From the most metaphorical and metaphysical claims about the pregnant subject to the most practical political arguments about the day-to-day of mothering, these essays draw us in with their careful and passionate scholarship. LaChance Adams and Lundquist have provided not only a primer for those trying to understand what is philosophical in pregnancy, birth, and mothering, but show that thinking about these topics should change the way everyone philosophizes. The discipline--and the canon--look different after Coming To Life." -- -Cressida Heyes University of Alberta, Edmonton

Sarah LaChance Adams (External Editor) Sarah LaChance Adams is assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin, Superior. She has published several articles and chapters on pregnancy, childbirth, and mothering and is the author of a forthcoming book on maternal ambivalence and ethics.

Contributors: Sarah LaChance Adams, Melissa Burchard, Sonya Charles, Cynthia Coe, Frances Gray, Lisa Guenther, Eva Kittay, Candace Johnson, Caroline R. Lundquist, Bertha Alvarez Manninen, Kelly Oliver, Dorothy Rogers, Rebecca Tuvel, Kayley Varnallis, Florentien Verhage, Gail Weiss, Talia Welsh