Selective Reproduction

Social and Temporal Imaginaries for Negotiating the Value of Life in Human and Animal Neonates

Bibliographic Data

ID2288578
AuthorsM N Svendsen (0000-0002-4777-4973, University of Copenhagen, corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume29
Issue2
Pages178-195
Publication date2015-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueMedical Anthropology Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0745-5194 • E-ISSN: 1548-1387
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/maq.12149
PMID25359420
OpenAlexW2164926454
LanguageEN
Citations received18
References cited40

This article employs a multi-species perspective in investigating how life's worth is negotiated in the field of neonatology in Denmark. It does so by comparing decision-making processes about human infants in the Danish neonatal intensive care unit with those associated with piglets who serve as models for the premature infants in research experiments within neonatology. While the comparison is unusual, the article argues that there are parallels across the decision-making processes that shape the lives and deaths of infants and pigs alike. Collectivities or the lack thereof as well as expectations within linear or predictive time frames are key markers in both sites. Exploring selective reproductive processes across human infants and research piglets can help us uncover aspects of the cultural production of viability that we would not otherwise see or acknowledge

Biology · Danish · Intensive care · Intensive care medicine · Negotiation · Neonatal intensive care unit · Neonatology · Parallels · Perspective (graphical · Pregnancy · Reproduction · Social science · Sociology · Value (mathematics · Computer Science · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Human-Animal Interaction Studies · Medicine · Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior · Psychology · Ecology · Pediatrics