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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The dream of the perfect child <BR>Joan Rothschild
<BR>Indiana University Press Bloomington, Indiana, USA. 2005.<BR>343 pp. $24.95.
ISBN: 0-253-21760-1 (paperback). </FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Reviewed by Mary Devereaux <BR>University of
California, San Diego, California.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Recent advances in genetics and prenatal testing
create the hope of children born free of the accidents of genetic roulette and
the vagaries of birth. It is this dream that Joan Rothschild explores in her
rich, thought-provoking book The dream of the perfect child. While acknowledging
the "remarkable achievements" of DNA analysis, ultrasound, preimplantation
genetic diagnosis, and related procedures, her book advances a far-ranging
critique of current prenatal testing and its effects. Rothschild’s thesis is
that contemporary reproductive medicine is heir to a discourse of human
perfectibility that has transformed a natural parental desire for healthy
children — a "desire we all share" — into the "cruel illusion" of the perfect
child. It is this illusion that Rothschild hopes to dispel. Specifically, she
targets the "dark underbelly" of perfection: the language of defects,
abnormality, and risk that allegedly leads to a "hierarchy of birth." In her
terms, criteria of selection imply criteria of rejection.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Rothschild holds that the use of such criteria has
two negative consequences. First, in defining and labeling an ever-expanding
list of "unacceptable" traits, prenatal testing leads to overuse of abortion.
While formally pro-choice, Rothschild does little to hide her disapproval of
those who would terminate pregnancies for minor defects or manageable conditions
compatible with a good life. Second, the use of criteria of rejection inevitably
results in a devaluation of the lives of the genetically "flawed" or
physiologically atypical — lives deemed "not worth living." Rothschild finds
evidence of this implicit devaluation not only among parents pursing the dream
of perfect progeny but also among medical professionals whose language and
practice reflect the norms of biological reductionism and bioethicists who
largely accept the medical status quo.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>More at the Journal of Clinical Investigation - <A
href="http://www.jci.org/cgi/content/short/116/1/3">http://www.jci.org/cgi/content/short/116/1/3</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>--<BR>Stephen Korsman<BR><A
href="mailto:skorsman@theotokos.co.za">skorsman@theotokos.co.za</A><BR><A
href="http://www.theotokos.co.za">www.theotokos.co.za</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>IC | XC<BR>---------<BR>NI |
KA<BR></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>