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Icons of Life
A Cultural History of Human Embryos
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Lynn Morgan
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2009
About this book
Icons of Life tells the engrossing and provocative story of an early twentieth-century undertaking, the Carnegie Institution of Washington's project to collect thousands of embryos for scientific study. Lynn M. Morgan blends social analysis, sleuthing, and humor to trace the history of specimen collecting. In the process, she illuminates how a hundred-year-old scientific endeavor continues to be felt in today's fraught arena of maternal and fetal politics. Until the embryo collecting project-which she follows from the Johns Hopkins anatomy department, through Baltimore foundling homes, and all the way to China-most people had no idea what human embryos looked like. But by the 1950s, modern citizens saw in embryos an image of "ourselves unborn," and embryology had developed a biologically based story about how we came to be. Morgan explains how dead specimens paradoxically became icons of life, how embryos were generated as social artifacts separate from pregnant women, and how a fetus thwarted Gertrude Stein's medical career. By resurrecting a nearly forgotten scientific project, Morgan sheds light on the roots of a modern origin story and raises the still controversial issue of how we decide what embryos mean.
Author / Editor information
Contributor: Lynn Morgan
Lynn M. Morgan is Mary E. Woolley Professor of Anthropology at Mount Holyoke College and is coeditor (with Meredith W. Michaels) of Fetal Subjects, Feminist Positions.
Topics
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Frontmatter
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Contents
vii -
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Illustrations
ix -
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Preface
xi -
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1. A Skeleton in the Closet and Fetuses in the Basement
1 -
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2. Embryo Visions
38 -
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3. Building a Collection
58 -
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4. Inside the Embryo Production Factory
96 -
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5. Traffic in “Embryo Babies”
124 -
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6. Embryo Tales
159 -
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7. From Dead Embryos to Icons of Life
189 -
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8. From Dead Embryos to Icons of Life
224 -
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Notes
247 -
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References
257 -
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Index
299
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
July 22, 2019
eBook ISBN:
9780520944725
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Main content:
328
eBook ISBN:
9780520944725
Keywords for this book
embryo collection; embryology; carnegie institute of washington; specimen collecting; 20th century scientific history; 20th century american history; maternal politics; ourselves unborn; johns hopkins anatomy department; embryo production factory; baltimore foundling homes; embryo babies; mount holyoke collection; fetal politics; united states of america; icons of life; pregnancy; gertrude stein; medical care; medial treatment; healthcare; biology; pregnant women; social artifacts; scientific study; science
