Imperfect conceptions : medical knowledge, birth defects and eugenics in China
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Imperfect conceptions : medical knowledge, birth defects and eugenics in China
Hurst & Co, c1998
Available at 8 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 187-217) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Frank Dikotter's work analyzes the relationship between medicine and ideas about reproduction in China, from the late Ming to the present. Drawing on sources ranging from treatises on reproductive disorders to flyers advertising freak shows, he shows how the notion of reproduction as a potentially dangerous phenomenon - one that has to be strictly regulated to safeguard the nation's eugenic future - permeated Chinese society. The process was accelerated by the appropriation of genetics and embryology in the late 19th century and by the publication of works of "popular medicine". These historical developments engendered the view that individuals - who were always represented in relation to the larger patrilineal collectivity - should be accountable not only for their own reproductive behaviour, but also for the health of future offspring. Such sentiments still hold sway today. Since Deng Xiaoping's accession to power, human genetics has come to occupy centre stage, as a growing number of socially undesirable traits, including criminality, are attributed to "bad" genes, which the state seeks to regulate in order to restrict such "inferior births".
The final part of the book looks at the social, political and cultural context of the controversial eugenics law passed in China in 1995, which potentially endows local cadres and medical authorities with the power of life and death. The ethical and political implications of this legislation are closely scrutinized.
Table of Contents
- "Monstrous bodies" - medical theories of foetal health in Late Imperial China
- "defective genes" - the regulation of reproduction in Republican China
- "inferior births" - eugenics in the People's Republic of China.
by "Nielsen BookData"