Reconstructing Motherhood and Disability in the Age of Perfect Babies

Examining mothers of newly diagnosed disabled children within the context of new reproductive technologies and the discourse of choice, this book uses anthropology and disability studies to revise the concept of "normal" and to establish a social environment in which the expression of full lives will prevail.

Gail Heidi Landsman (Ph.D., Catholic University) is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Albany, SUNY, where she teaches courses in gender, reproduction, and disability. She is the author of numerous book chapters, articles in peer-reviewed journals, and a previous book Sovereignty and Symbol. She is also the mother of three children, one of whom has cerebral palsy.

1: Introduction 2: Doing Everything Right: Choice, Control and Mother Blame 3: Diminished Motherhood 4: Mothers, Doctors and Developmental Delays: On Personhood and the Emplotment of Children's Lives 5: The Child as Giver: Mothers' Critique of the Commodification of Babies 6: Mothers, Models, and Disability Rights