Dear all - a couple of items that might be of interest. All best, Ellie
1. ‘Assessing Child Welfare under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008: A Case Study in Medicalization’. This is the first peer-reviewed article by Ellie Lee, Jan Macvarish and Sally Sheldon to result from an ESRC-funded study looking at pre-conception ‘welfare of the child’ assessments in assisted conception services.
Abstract: This article reports on a study with staff working in assisted conception clinics in the UK about making welfare of the child (WOC) assessments pre-conception. This aspect of infertility treatment is obligatory under section 13(5) of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act, which was amended in 2008. The aim of the study was to find out how this change to the law had impacted on practice. In describing what we found, we also make a contribution to scholarship about the medicalisation of reproduction. S13(5) has often been discussed as a prime example of medicalisation, giving clinics power to grant or deny access to treatment on child welfare grounds, encompassing far more than purely clinical considerations. Yet, while such medicalisation may be entrenched in the law, our findings suggest this power is used with a very light touch. Further, while our interviewees offered near-universal support for the need to consider child welfare, this is now justified by concerns that address not only family form (e.g. the need for a father figure) but also the quality of interactions between parents and children. In this light we suggest that the concept of medicalisation may offer a rather blunt tool for understanding a far more complex reality
Read the article here: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-9566.12078/abstract
For more details about the study and to access other publications from it see:
http://blogs.kent.ac.uk/parentingculturestudies/research-themes/pregnancy/wo/
2. I am now doing a stint as a Section Editor for Science and Medicine for the on-line journal Sociology Compass. Sociology Compass publishes clearly-written articles that summarise the state of a sub-field for non-specialists. The journal does not publish original research, and most articles are invited submissions (subjected to two peer reviews). Authors should write succinct (less than 5,000 words) and accessible overviews that make an argument. The website for Compass is here, and you can follow the link to the Science and Medicine section: http://sociology-compass.com/
If you are interested in contributing to Compass, with an article that for example reviews sociological work on an aspect of reproductive medicine, debates about topics like abortion provision, children and ‘healthy eating’ (or any aspect of food and the family), other aspects of health promotion (or have other suggestions) do get in touch. [log in to unmask]
Dr Ellie Lee, Reader in Social Policy
SSPSSR, Cornwallis NE, University of Kent, Canterbury UK, CT2 7NF
Director, Parenting Culture Studies
https://blogs.kent.ac.uk/parentingculturestudies/
t: 01227 827526
e: [log in to unmask]
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