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Article ID: CBB279929874

Women’s decision-making and their experiences in the changing socio-technical system of prenatal testing in Japan, 1980s to the 2010s (2021)

Icon: Journal of the International Committee for the History of Technology
Volume: 26
Issue: 2
Pages: 62-80
Publication date: 2021
Language: English

Publication Date: 2021
Edition Details: Special Issue: The Body and Technology

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Prenatal care and diagnosis Technology and society Childbirth Medical technology 21st century 20th century Japan

This article analyzes the notions of woman’s body, reproduction, and choices regarding prenatal testing over the last three decades in Japan from interviews with women about their experiences of pregnancy and prenatal testing. First, the historical background of abortion and prenatal testing in Japan is described focusing on the decriminalization of abortion under the 1948 eugenic policy, subsequent disabled liberation movement against the policy, and how it clashed with women’s liberation movement for reproductive choice. Then the article shows how women’s attitudes towards prenatal testing have changed over time referring to the interview data, and analyzes factors affecting their decisions regarding whether to take a prenatal test. As the development of testing technology plays a crucial part, and it is important to grasp the interrelationship between technological development, social changes and individual women’s attitudes and their families’ roles/norms in their decision-making, the analysis regards the complex co-development of technological, political, and cultural factors as a dynamic socio-technical system of prenatal testing in Japan. By doing so, it reveals the implicit politics revolving around the imagery of “mothers giving birth to healthy babies,” and the ambivalent positioning of prenatal testing.

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Article Donna J. Drucker (2021) Introduction: The Body and Technology. Icon: Journal of the International Committee for the History of Technology (pp. 8-10). unapi

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