Wunschkinder in Deutschland und Indien als Kontext für Pränataldiagnostik und selektive Abtreibungen
Zusammenfassung der Projektergebnisse
The project’s most important scientific advances is in finding a common theoretical ground of ‘humanitarian conception’ feminist-disability discourse that was at crossroads. I wrote the concept ‘humanitarian conception’ during this project period and published in 2018 but was based on my previous post-doctoral project. In my next book based on this DFG project I will carry this concept further. In India, the panel discussion held in Delhi brought together pro-abortion and sex selective abortion scientists and activists together to debate and find a common ground and I will write this in my upcoming book. The main surprise was the bias in the pregnant women who came forward in Germany to participate in the interviews; they were mainly religious or those who were strongly against any abortions. The strong stigma associated with speaking about abortion among women in Germany while the ease in which women in India spoke about their abortions was another surprise. The lack of emancipation among women even in matrilineal society in Meghalaya was an indication that gender equality should be the focus and not any kind of matrilineal system. This research will make a significant contribution to the global discourse on social context of prenatal screening and selective abortions and to the conceptualization of embodiment, situated knowledge and intersectionality especially the discourse between feminist-disability scholars and activists. The project started off an important debate on Non-intrusive prenatal screening in India and played a role in networking and taking forward this discourse in Germany. The initial findings of the research reveal that ultrasound is virtually normalized and organ scan is gradually turning into a norm in the clinics in Germany despite persistent resistance and ethical debate questioning this normalization. Such technologies are also normalized among upper-middle and affluent classes in India, while the poor do not have the access or knowledge about such technologies. The gendered preference and fear about disabilities in both countries is embedded in the larger context of social acceptability. The embodied fear regarding a girl child in India can be comparable to that of fear expressed for disability in Germany. While there is a strong gender bias in largely patriarch India, the matrilineal Meghalaya is one of the few locations in India that practice a girl child preference but without male sex selective abortions. But whether this translates into overall emancipation for women is debatable. The gendered embodiment in Germany is so subtly embedded in the social context of fear, notions of parenthood and the interpretations of the technology that it is difficult to decode it. The forthcoming book based on this research findings relates to a range of liberal, radical, postmodern feminist and disability studies frameworks on PND and SAs. Carrying forward from a concept introduced in my previous book ‘Humanitarian Conception’, I highlight the importance of ‘humanitarian conception’ that calls for reproductive rights that also pays attention to social responsibility.
Projektbezogene Publikationen (Auswahl)
- (2017) ‘When Doctors Rock the Cradle', Governance Now, February 16-28, 8(2): 56-58
Saravanan, S.
