The Unborn Human, edited by Deborah Lupton
Open Humanities Press is pleased to announce the publication of The
Unborn Human, the 24th book in its open access Living Books About Life
series.
The essays in this collection, edited by Deborah Lupton of the Department of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Sydney, examine the unprecedented level of discursive prominence unborn human organisms – embryos and foetuses – experience in the contemporary era. Debates about the moral status of the unborn, about their claims to personhood and whether they should be treated as full human subjects, have been ongoing for a long time, particularly in areas related to religious philosophy, bioethics and abortion politics. Over the past half-century, however, these debates have become more diversified, intense and complex in response to a number of social, technological and economic changes. This Living Book about Life covers many of these facets of the unborn human. By incorporating academic articles as well as material from social, news and other digital media sites spanning historical medical, contemporary medical, sociocultural, bioethical and legal perspectives, The Unborn Human demonstrates the various and diverse contexts in which knowledges, concepts, objects and practices work together to configure embryos and foetuses.