Dissertation Research: Support for Tanfer Emin: Technological Change in Pregnancy Termination, 1850 - 1980

在过去的三十年里，技术史和社会学的研究教会了我们许多关于发明、发展和传播的过程。然而，尽管这些技术正在对当今世界产生巨大的社会、伦理和经济影响，但很少有这些研究将技术史的见解带到医疗和生殖技术上。通过将这些生殖技术置于适当的历史背景中，本论文研究项目不仅将阐明我们的前辈们曾与之斗争的问题，而且还将揭示当前关于终止妊娠的辩论以及RU-486等新技术可能产生的社会影响。从历史上看，人们对终止妊娠的科学技术几乎一无所知。在19世纪和20世纪，没有一位学者彻底研究过不断变化的终止妊娠技术，也没有人试图理解这些不断变化的技术是如何与医学职业化、专业化和商业化的政治联系在一起的。本论文旨在填补这一历史真空。这项研究将追溯从1850年(草药方法开始被外科方法取代，有关受精的知识不断增长)到1980年(到1980年，许多新的外科方法已经开发和传播，受精和排卵都得到了很好的理解，胎儿发育的不同阶段已经被划分)的终止妊娠技术的变化。由于终止妊娠一直是一个充满政治色彩的话题，因此，必须将这些科技变化放在各种争议的背景下来看待：普通人和专业人士之间关于谁应该获得控制终止妊娠的许可的争议；男性和女性之间关于谁应该负责控制生育的争议；希望堕胎合法的人和希望禁止堕胎的人之间的争议；一种技术系统的倡导者之间的争议。因此，本论文既是对技术的社会建构的研究，也是对一个非常重要的社会过程--终止妊娠的技术建构的研究。在初步研究中，联合PI在已出版的资料来源(医学期刊、医学教科书、专利记录、贸易目录)和档案收藏中发现了材料。NSF基金支持前往其他相关档案藏品的旅行。

In the last three decades, studies in the history and sociology of technology have taught us a great deal about the processes of invention, development, and diffusion. However, very few of these studies bring the insights of the history of technology to bear on medical and reproductive technologies, despite the fact that these technologies are having an enormous social, ethical and economic impact on today's world. By placing these reproductive technologies in their proper historical context, this dissertation research project will not only elucidate the issues with which our predecessors struggled, but also shed a ray of light on the current debates over pregnancy termination and the likely social impact of new technologies such as RU-486. Almost nothing is known, historically, about the science and technology of pregnancy termination. No scholar has ever thoroughly explored the changing technologies of pregnancy termination during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and no effort has been made to understand how these changing technologies were connected to the politics of medical professionalization, specialization, and commercialization. This dissertation project seeks to fill this historical vacuum. This study will trace the changes in pregnancy termination technology from 1850 (when herbal methods began to be replaced by surgical methods, and knowledge about fertilization was growing) to 1980 (by which time numerous new surgical methods had been developed and diffused, both fertilization and ovulation were well understood, and the different stages of fetal development had been demarcated). Since pregnancy termination has always been a politically charged subject, these scientific and technological changes must, of necessity, be viewed within the context of a variety of disputes: disputes between laypeople and professionals about who should be licensed to control pregnancy termination; disputes between men and women about who should be responsible for fertility control; disputes between those who want the procedure to be legal and those who want it banned; disputes between advocates of one technological system over another. This dissertation project will thus be a study both in the social construction of technology and in the technological construction of one very significant social process -- pregnancy termination. In preliminary research, the Co-PI has uncovered material in published sources (medical journals, medical textbooks, patent records, trade catalogues) and in archival collections. NSF funds support travel to other relevant archival collections.