Assessing child welfare under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008
A Case Study in Medicalisation
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2248803 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ellie Lee (0000-0001-8131-6872, School of Social Policy Sociology and Social Research (SSPSSR) University of Kent), Jan Macvarish (Centre for Health Services Studies SSPSSR University of Kent Canterbury), Sally Sheldon (0000-0001-5472-9655, Kent Law School University of Kent Canterbury) |
| Year | 2014 |
| Volume | 36 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 500-515 |
| Publication date | 2014-05-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Sociology of Health & Illness (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0141-9889 • E-ISSN: 1467-9566 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/1467-9566.12078 |
| PMID | 24386909 |
| OpenAlex | W1969886217 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 8 |
| References cited | 12 |
This article reports on a study with staff working in assisted conception clinics in the UK about making welfare of the child (WOC) assessments pre-conception. This aspect of infertility treatment is obligatory under section 13(5) of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act, which was amended in 2008. The aim of the study was to find out how this change to the law had impacted on practice. In describing what we found, we also make a contribution to scholarship about the medicalisation of reproduction. S13(5) has often been discussed as a prime example of medicalisation, giving clinics power to grant or deny access to treatment on child welfare grounds, encompassing far more than purely clinical considerations. Yet, while such medicalisation may be entrenched in the law, our findings suggest this power is used with a very light touch. Further, while our interviewees offered near-universal support for the need to consider child welfare, this is now justified by concerns that address not only family form (e.g. the need for a father figure) but also the quality of interactions between parents and children. In this light we suggest that the concept of medicalisation may offer a rather blunt tool for understanding a far more complex reality
Political science · Power (physics · Scholarship · Sociology · Welfare · Child Welfare and Adoption · Homicide, Infanticide, and Child Abuse · Law · Psychology · Reproductive Health and Technologies
Equality‐enhancing potential of novel forms of assisted gestation
Child welfare assessments and the regulation of access to publicly funded fertility treatment
Revisiting the use of ‘counselling’ as a means of preparing prospective parents to meet the emerging psychosocial needs of families that have used gamete donation
Pour être « seule aux manettes »
From ‘Virgin Births’ to ‘Octomom’
Supportive Parenting’, Responsibility and Regulation
Invisible Labours
Anticipatory Regimes in Pregnancy
The Medicalization of Society
Looking at levels of medicalization
Looking at levels of medicalization
‘Everybody’s got a dad…’. Issues for lesbian families in the management of donor insemination
No Father Required”? The Welfare Assessment in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008
The United Kingdom's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 and the welfare of the child
Women, Health and Reproduction
Current Legal Problems 1954
Conception and the Irrelevance of the Welfare Principle
Medicalization and Social Control
| Citations per year | 0.73 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2015 - 2024 (10) |
| Highly cited | No |