Prenatal politics: fetal surgery, abortion and disability rights in the United States

Abstract

While fetal surgery—and pregnancy termination as a possible therapeutic alternative—have been examined in a number of studies, very few have addressed the issues and tensions that arise when prenatal surgery is considered from the standpoint of Disability Studies. This article will expose these concerns by tracing the medical development of fetal surgery; the arguments for and against prenatal surgery; and the connections between fetal surgery, abortion, and disability rights. Like other dimensions of the life cycle that involve reproduction, prenatal surgery has become highly politicized in the United States which has, to a certain extent, stalled critical discussion. However, the skepticism with which many disability rights advocates and policymakers approach prenatal medical intervention in general has opened a new space for active debate concerning fetal surgery in terms of how it medicalizes pregnancy, pathologizes diversity, contributes to the valuation of life, and emphasizes ‘perfect babies’ at any cost.

KEYWORDS:

• Fetal Surgery
• Disability Rights
• Abortion
• Prenatal Politics
• United States

Acknowledgements

Earlier versions of this article were presented at the Swiss Society of the History of Medicine and Sciences Conference (University of Bern, Switzerland, 2013); Abortion: The Unfinished Revolution Conference (University of Prince Edward Island, Canada, 2014); and Valuations of Life: Birth Defects, Prenatal Diagnoses, and Disability International Workshop (Uppsala University, Sweden, 2018).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The idea of the ‘unborn patient,’ which appears extensively in the fetal surgery literature, especially in Casper (1998), was initially popularized in Harrison (1984).

2 It is important to stress that some members of the disability rights community support prenatal diagnosis and/or abortion. See Blumberg (1994); Buchanan (1996); Saxton (2013); Raz (2004).

3 For other critical viewpoints, see Lloyd (2001); Sharp and Earle (2002).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Tanfer Emin Tunc

Tanfer Emin Tunc is a Professor of American Studies at Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey. She received a BA, MA and PhD in History from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and specializes in women's and gender studies and the history of medicine, sexuality, and reproduction. Prof. Tunc has published extensively in these areas, and her work can be found in journals such as Literature and Medicine, Medical History, and Gender and History. She is the co-editor of seven books, and the author of two, including Technologies of Choice: A History of Abortion Techniques in the United States, 1850–1980 (VDM, 2008). She is also the recipient of grants, fellowships and awards from the National Science Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation of Princeton University, Rockefeller University, Duke University, the University of Michigan, Smith College, and the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. In 2015, Prof. Tunc was a Visiting Scholar at the Hastings Center for Bioethics and Public Policy, where she conducted research on fetal surgery.