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

在过去的三十年里，技术的历史和社会学研究已经教会了我们很多关于发明、发展和传播的过程。 然而，这些研究很少将技术历史的见解与医疗和生殖技术联系起来，尽管这些技术对当今世界产生了巨大的社会、伦理和经济影响。通过将这些生殖技术置于适当的历史背景下，本论文研究项目不仅将阐明我们的前辈所面临的问题，而且还将为当前关于终止妊娠的争论以及RU-486等新技术可能产生的社会影响提供一线曙光。从历史上看，对终止妊娠的科学和技术几乎一无所知。 没有学者曾经彻底探讨过19世纪和20世纪不断变化的终止妊娠技术，也没有人试图了解这些不断变化的技术是如何与医疗专业化、专业化和商业化的政治联系在一起的。 本论文项目旨在填补这一历史真空。 这项研究将追溯从1850年（当时草药方法开始被手术方法所取代，关于受精的知识不断增长）到1980年（当时许多新的手术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划分）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主题，因此必须从各种争端的角度来看待这些科学和技术变革：外行人和专业人员之间关于谁应获得控制终止妊娠的许可证的争端;男子和妇女之间关于谁应负责控制生育的争端;主张这一程序是法律的和主张禁止这一程序的人之间的争论;主张一种技术系统而反对另一种技术系统的人之间的争论。 因此，本学位论文的研究项目将是在技术的社会建设和技术建设的一个非常重要的社会过程-终止妊娠。 在初步研究中，Co-PI从出版物（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的资金支持旅行到其他相关的档案收藏。

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.