Résumé
Sociologist Elizabeth M. Armstrong uses fetal alcohol syndrome and the problem of drinking during pregnancy to examine the assumed relationship between somatic and social disorder, the ways in which social problems are individualized, and the intertwining of health and morality that characterizes American society. She traces the evolution of medical knowledge about the effects of alcohol on fetal development, from nineteenth-century debates about drinking and heredity to the modern diagnosis of FAS and its kindred syndromes. She argues that issues of race, class, and gender have influenced medical findings about alcohol and reproduction and that these findings have always reflected broader social and moral preoccupations and, in particular, concerns about women's roles and place in society, as well as the fitness of future generations.
Contenu
Conceiving risk -- The "question of alcohol and offspring" in the nineteenth century -- Diagnosing moral disorder -- Charting uncertainty through doctors' lenses -- Discordant depictions of risk -- Medical-moral authority and the redefinition of risk in the twentieth century -- Bearing responsibility.