Fear of Monsters, “Birth Defects” and Medical Imagery: Visualizing the Unborn
Fear of Monsters, “Birth Defects” and Medical Imagery: Visualizing the Unborn

Summary/Abstract: The article examines the growing role of visualization technologies, and, in parallel, the limits of visualization: images are not context–free and do not "speak by themselves." From the antiquity on, scientists and laypeople alike had been fascinated by malformed fetuses and newborns, but the term “birth defect” was developed in the 19 century. Ever since doctors became interested in the prevention of “birth defects” produced by diseases or poor health during pregnancy. Until the 1960s, it was, however not possible to know whether such preventive steps were efficient before the child was born. The development of obstetrical ultrasound, and the parallel possibility of genetic analysis of fetal cells opened a possibility “to see what is going to be born”. The older term for the scientific discipline that investigated abnormal births “teratology” - the study of monstrosities - was replaced in the 1970s with the less scary term, “dysmorphology.” In late 20 century the science of abnormal development became inseparably linked with the rapid development of prenatal diagnosis and prenatal screening, and to changing attitudes to the unborn. The author analyses the above phenomena.

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