Imperfect Pregnancies

"If you are a supporter or a critic of prenatal testing, or, like many people, decidedly ambiguous, there is much that you will learn [from Imperfect Pregnancies] and much that will make you pause and re-examine your own views and knowledge base."

"Above all, it is a rational, erudite, thoughtful – and thought-provoking – account of a major change in the experience of pregnancy which has come about largely unnoticed."

"The author expertly navigates the reader through history and follows the rise of biomedical technologies that have made prenatal diagnosis possible... This book will benefit students, academics, health professionals and activists interested in issues surrounding new medical technologies, screening, risk management, pregnancy, disability, and the history and social politics of women's bodies."

"This highly readable book is important for historians of twentieth century medicine, sociologists of reproduction and bioethicists reflecting on "the beginning of life"... In a field of study beset by vehement rhetoric and bigotry, Löwy's reserved and metered style is a blessing, perhaps a precondition for fruitful reflection... Ilana Löwy sets the stage for the bioethical discourse on prenatal diagnosis and choice as a tug of war with three poles—the autonomy of the person as a woman and a mother, the good of the child, and fundamental social values such as respect for human life, reliable medical science and services, justice and solidarity."

"Since its early stages, prenatal diagnosis has been balancing between the promises of safer pregnancies and healthier babies, and the dangers of its use for eugenic purposes. Ilana Löwy goes beyond this, and eloquently shows the limitations of such a dichotomised analysis... Löwy summons a wide range of disciplinary fields to solidly support this historical and comparative analysis of this field of research and medical practice, offering an unbiased yet critical approach."

"Löwy gives a very useful overview of the growth of prenatal diagnostic technologies and the expansion of prenatal diagnosis from a small group of women with at-risk pregnancies to ever wider circles."

"An accomplished piece of scholarship, Imperfect Pregnancies will be necessary reading for students and historians of medicine and medical technology, particularly those interested in a comparative perspective. Lowy's book places current debates about disabilities, reproductive technologies, and abortion in an essential historical context. It encourages scholars to think more about the complicated implications of supposedly progressive medical and technological advances, provides a synthesis of the main developments in biomedical technology in the twentieth century, and paves the way for future specialized research."

"A wonderful, erudite, and eminently readable study of the history of prenatal testing and the emergence of birth defect classification. Clearly and beautifully written, Imperfect Pregnancies vividly illuminates the cultural, social, and experiential significance of expanding prenatal testing technology."

"Prenatal diagnosis finally gets the rich history it deserves, free of the distracting shadow of eugenics. Lowy shows that parents want reassurance, not perfection. Virtually all pregnant women are now 'at risk,' if only for uncertain test results."

"Pregnancy has never been safer, but thanks to the routinization of prenatal testing it is getting scarier and scarier. In this extraordinary book, Ilana Löwy highlights the profound and often tragic dilemmas that arise from the diffusion of technology long before its consequences have been debated or fully understood."

"Ilana Löwy offers a lucid and humane account of how prenatal diagnosis went from being a rare to a routine part of pregnant women’s medical experience. She deftly traces the emergence of the current system of prenatal diagnostic screening and tests, with its contradictory impulses of public health and individual choice. Imperfect Pregnancies is an astute and timely book about how high-tech biomedicine has disturbed and reordered our most intimate experiences."