Down's Syndrome Screening and Reproductive Politics

"Gareth Thomas has produced a thoughtful, rich, nuanced presentation of the normalization of Downs syndrome screening, hoping to ignite more reflexive and pluralistic dialogues. If only that would happen that more people read, and thought, and spoke about what it means to introduce and make ordinary prenatal screening for more of these predictable conditions. It is an urgent conversation and Thomas has pushed it along in valuable ways." Barbara Katz Rothman, City University of New York, USA, and author of The Tentative Pregnancy: Prenatal Diagnosis and the Future of Motherhood "Down's Syndrome Screening and Reproductive Politics takes the reader deep inside the extraordinariness of ordinariness to scrutinize how the professional practices of midwives and sonographers trivialize the tests pregnant women, and their supporters, have for this and other disabling conditions. Based on extensive sociological fieldwork in the UK, this book provides a valuable analysis of the expert discourses that now inform contemporary reproductive politics, wherever prenatal testing is routinized." Rayna Rapp, New York University, USA. and author of Testing Women, Testing the Foetus: The Social Impact of Amniocentesis in America "This fascinating, timely, and highly original book presents a rich ethnographic study of Down's syndrome (DS) screening in two hospital clinics. With a focus on the routine practices and daily work through which test procedures are managed, risk assessments are communicated, and moral responsibility is assigned, we see how DS screening is simultaneously framed as mundane, low status work and as important to the process of decision-making during a pregnancy. [] Drawing on medical sociology, symbolic interactionism, and ethnomethodology, Gareth Thomas presents a convincing and compelling argument about how the downgrading of DS screening is routinely accomplished through a network of power relations, discursive accounts, and everyday talk." Susie Scott, University of Sussex, UK "Prenatal screening reshapes societys concepts of what is human, normal and acceptable. It promotes the bioethical fictions that the clinic service is neutral and offers free, informed, non-directive choice. New technologies are introduced without greatly needed renewed public debate and new professional training, and Thomas lists urgent questions for public debate about the nature and purpose of prenatal care and whose interests are served by innovations. [] His book deserves to be widely read." Priscilla Alderson, The Sociological Review "Thomass book provides a fine-grained and thoughtful study of the transformation of testing for Downs syndrome into a routine intervention and standard of care. [] Thomas study is an important contribution not only to the understanding of recent changes in the surveillance of pregnancies but, more generally, of patterns of incorporation of biomedical innovations into clinical practices. I strongly recommended it to all those sociologists and anthropologists of medicine, health care professionals, activists and health care users who wish to better understand the extraordinary transformations of ordinary medicine." Ilana Lwy, Sociology of Health and Illness "Thomass focus on medical professionals offers a refreshing contribution to the sociological literature on Downs syndrome screening. [] [T]he book is ethnographically rich, concise, and clearly written. It will hold considerable appeal for students and scholars in medical sociology, genetics and society, and related elds." Mara Buchbinder, New Genetics and Society "The book offers a timely look into a case in which an emergent biomedical technology has effectively (and rather quickly) changed the standard course of prenatal care in the clinic all the while, its seamless integration into the clinic has transpired l

Gareth M. Thomas is a Lecturer in Sociology in the School of Social Sciences at Cardiff University. He is a sociologist who is interested in among other things medicine, disability, stigma, reproduction, health and well-being, technology, place, and interaction.

Chapter 1. Introduction Chapter 2. A Short Socio-History Chapter 3. Hands-Off Work Chapter 4. The Conduct of Care Chapter 5. Constituting Risk and Disability Chapter 6. Expectant Parents, Expecting Perfection Chapter 7. Summary and Discussion