A Comparative Study of the Ultrasound Diagnosis of Fetal Anomaly in Greece and Canada

这个项目考察了使用一种新的医疗工具——超声诊断胎儿异常——所涉及的文化行为的差异。研究人员是两位文化人类学家，他们将研究如何通过超声成像胎儿异常诊断来表达对正常、风险和个人责任的文化特定理解，并将通过文化理解的差异来解释希腊和加拿大的做法之间的差异。该项目将测试关于影响医患互动的医疗权威和道德概念差异的假设；关于“正常身体”的文化特定含义如何导致希腊和加拿大夫妇的经历和胎儿异常的因果解释之间的差异；以及不同文化对风险的不同定义。所采用的方法将是在希腊雅典以及加拿大维多利亚、温哥华和多伦多的医院和诊所进行参与性观察，并与有过胎儿异常经历的孕妇及其伴侣进行面谈；与卫生从业人员的访谈和档案研究。这项研究将推进关于“正常”身体概念与文化背景之间关系的理论，将适当或理想身体的规范与历史上特定的社会和政治秩序联系起来。该项目还将有助于了解生物医学和生物伦理信仰和实践的跨文化特点。

9820716Georges This project examines variations in cultural behavior involved in the use of a new medical tool, ultrasound diagnosis of fetal anomaly. The researchers, two cultural anthropologists, will study how culturally specific understandings of normality, risk, and personal responsibility are expressed through the diagnosis of fetal anomaly by ultrasound imaging, and will explain the variation between practices in Greece and in Canada by variations in cultural understandings. The project will test hypotheses about differences in concepts about medical authority and morality which affect doctor-patient interaction; about how culturally specific meanings of the "normal body" result in differences between Greek and Canadian couples' experiences and causal explanations of fetal anomaly; and about variations in the cultural definition of risk. The methods used will be participant observation in hospitals and clinics in Athens, Greece and in Victoria, Vancouver and Toronto, Canada, as well as interviews with pregnant women and their partners who have had experience with fetal anomaly; interviews with health practitioners, and archival research. This research will advance theory about the relationship between conceptions of the "normal" body and cultural context, relating norms of the appropriate or ideal body to historically specific social and political orders. The project will also contribute to the understanding of cross-cultural specifics of biomedical and bioethical beliefs and practices.