Presented by ANU Gender Institute and ANU School of Sociology

ABSTRACT:

In recent years, ultrasound images have been mobilized in support of the formation of legal protections for the foetus in various ways, such as in foetal pain laws and foetal homicide laws. Such laws are controversial since they establish legal personhood for the foetus, and may ultimately be used to limit women's rights to abortion. In this paper, I consider the role that obstetric ultrasound images have played in the constitution of the foetus as person, to open a discussion of the ways that medical technologies are implicated in the legal and social regulation of pregnant women. In focusing on ultrasound images, I begin to develop a performative account of foetal personhood, drawing on the work of J.L. Austin and Judith Butler. This account highlights the social nature of moral status, and strives to recognise the normative significance of the maternal-foetal relationship.

BIO:

Catherine Mills is Associate Professor of Bioethics and the recipient of an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship in the Centre for Human Bioethics, Monash University. Her research explores issues at the intersection of reproductive ethics, feminist philosophy and Continental philosophy. She is the author of Futures of Reproduction: Bioethics and Biopolitics, and The Philosophy of Agamben. She is currently working on a book on biopolitics, as well as projects on obstetric ultrasound, and the concept of responsibility in reproductive ethics.