PRENATAL GENETIC TESTING AND GENETICIZATION - MOTHER MATTERS FOR ALL

Prenatal genetic testing represents the most widespread human applicat ion of reproductive technology, and its use is necessarily gendered. M oreover, its application both reflects and generates the process of 'g eneticization' that increasingly orients contemporary western-world st ories of health and disease. Taking a woman-centered approach, this pa per examines some of the stories being told about testing; questions t heir themes of 'reassurance' and 'choice', their construction of 'risk ', and their assumptions about disability; and explores the 'life-styl e' testing creates for (pregnant) women. Testing itself, and its power to control how we live and the children we bear, raises complex and t roubling matters that require continued and fresh examination.