Born And Made: An Ethnography Of Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis
by Sarah Franklin /
2006 / English / PDF
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This book examines the case of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), the procedure used to prevent serious genetic disease by embryo selection, and the so-called 'designer baby' method. Using detailed empirical evidence, the authors show that far from being a runaway technology, the regulation of PGD over the past fifteen years provides an example of precaution and restraint, as well as continual adaptation to changing social circumstances.Through interviews, media and policy analysis, and participant observation at two PGD centers in the United Kingdom, 'Born and Made' provides an in-depth sociological examination of the competing moral obligations that define the experience of PGD. Among the many novel findings of this pathbreaking ethnography of reproductive biomedicine is the prominence of uncertainty and ambivalence among PGD patients and professionals - a finding characteristic of the emerging 'biosociety', in which scientific progress is inherently paradoxical and contradictory.
