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SUMMARY:Infertility – the making of a modern experience\, Germany 1870
 –1930 - Christina Benninghaus (Department of History and Philosophy of S
 cience)
DTSTART:20121115T163000Z
DTEND:20121115T180000Z
UID:TALK40287@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Helen Curry
DESCRIPTION:When IVF was introduced\, it was seen as ushering in a new era
  marked by the ability to manipulate life. Regarding infertility\, IVF was
  perceived as a watershed\, neatly dividing a past in which infertility ha
 d been regarded as fate and present in which involuntarily childless coupl
 es faced unprecedented but ethically problematic options. Historians of me
 dicine would not subscribe to this view. Rather they would point to the fa
 ct that infertility had long been perceived as a medical condition\, deman
 ding sound diagnosis and at times rather aggressive forms of treatment. In
  my paper\, I will ask how the meaning of infertility changed during the l
 ate 19th and the early 20th century. I will look at the forms of diagnosis
  and treatment that were available during this period but also at the chan
 ging value Western societies attributed to motherhood and fatherhood\, to 
 children and to the ability to shape one's own life course. Was there some
 thing specifically 'modern' about the ways in which infertility was percei
 ved during this period? How does it compare to earlier times? And if there
  was substantial change\, how can we understand the relationship between b
 roader social and cultural changes and the dynamics brought about by advan
 ces in science and medicine?
LOCATION:Seminar Room 2\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
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