This thesis presents findings from a qualitative study of the emergence and early clinical translation of non-invasive prenatal diagnosis (NIPD) in the UK. Drawing from interviews with a range of experts and users I track the enrolment and translation of this new prenatal testing technology across a variety of clinical and social spaces. I show how encounters with NIPD prompt deep critical examination of the moral, social and political implications - not only of the technology - but of the established clinical practices (routine and specialised prenatal testing) and specific policy contexts (prenatal screening programmes) within which NIPD has begun to sediment. I explore how, as NIPD advances at a rapid pace and emerges within a culturally and politically complex context, the technology both aligns with and disrupts routine practices of prenatal screening and diagnosis. I show how, as the technology divides into two major strands - NIPD and NIPT - at an early stage of development, and before becoming naturalised/normalised within the clinic, scientists, clinicians and policy makers attempt to pin down, define and ‘fix’ the technology, drawing upon and engaging in substantive practices of division, categorisation and classification. I explore ambiguities present within such accounts, highlighting dissenting voices and moments of problematisation, and following this, I show how the ‘troubling’ of boundaries prompts much examination of ethical and social concerns. As a location within which interviewees explored more contentious issues, I show how abortion emerged as central to the discussion of NIPD. I proceed to show how institutionalised, professionalised bioethical debate dominates mainstream discourse, and I explain how a particular construction of the informed, individual choice-maker is mobilised in order to locate moral and political responsibility for testing in the hands of individuals, and to distance political/organisational structures from entanglement with problematic concerns. I explore how clinicians and patients respond to this positioning in multiple ways, both assimilating and questioning the mainstream discourse of ‘informed choice’. In conclusion, I highlight the broader (bio)political aspects of NIPD’s emergence and translation within prenatal screening and diagnosis.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:685488 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Strange, Heather |
| Publisher | Cardiff University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://orca.cf.ac.uk/90887/ |
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