Pure culture: a feminist analysis of IVF ethos and innovation

Steinberg, Deborah Lynn (1993). Pure culture: a feminist analysis of IVF ethos and innovation. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

This thesis examines the practices, policies and dominant professional ethos informing the development and deployment of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) in Britain. Through an examination of writings authored by IVF practitioners (and professional In related fields) as well as the British medical scientific code of practice in this field, legislation introduced to regulate IVF and a qualitative survey of IVF policies and practitioners’ attitudes towards their practices, this thesis explores: 1) the medical scientific constructions of women, women’s bodies and reproduction in this context and the implications of those constructions for women’s health, status and well-being; 2) the relationship between the British State and the medical scientific IVF community, particularly around Issues of accountability and authority and the implications of this relationship for women; and 3) the elaboration of eugenic discourses around disability and the complex politics of racism, class inequality, heterosexism and ablism surrounding the development of genetic and other forms of screening in the IVF context. The thesis contributes to the development of a feminist approach to the analysis of science, medicine and technology, IVF and related practices in particular, which considers the ways that racism, class Inequality, heterosexism and ablism shape and are shaped by the sexual/gender relations which characterise IVF ethos and innovation.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):