Cyborg Babies

Cyborg Babies explores the increasingly pervasive role of technology in childrens lives, from conception to birth to childcare. From foetuses scanned electronically to wired toddlers, children are being rendered cyborg by their immersion in technoculture. The contributors, who include Sherry Turkle, Emily Martin and Mikuko Ito, discuss the co-development of the human and the machine. While much popular reporting swings between presenting technology as monstrous or science as saviour, Cyborg Babies argues for a more complex analysis, and provides a range of perspectives from cultural anthropologists to social critics. Subjects discussed include: popular reporting of cyborg babymaking, including IVF, sperm banks, surrogacy, ultrasound and amniocentesis the technological management of childbirth in hospitals the technologically-saturated world of childhood, from vitamin injections to TV toy tie-ins.

"It is a valuable addition to the vibrant literature that has sprung up around the intersection of medical anthropology, feminist studies, and science and technology studies. ...the collection is highly readable. ...eminently suitable for use in graduate and undergraduate teaching and will be indispensable reading for scholars in the many fields upon which it touches." -- Medical Anthropology Quarterly, December 1999

"This delightfully diverse collection introduces scholars to watch as it presents the possibilities for the future of our species: Will we remain humans, or become monsters?." -- Village Voice

"...fascinating collection of essays..." -- Shift