Imaging and imagining the fetus [electronic resource] : the development of obstetric ultrasound / Malcolm Nicolson and John E.E. Fleming.

Imaging and imagining the fetus [electronic resource] : the development of obstetric ultrasound / Malcolm Nicolson and John E.E. Fleming.

9781421408248 (electronic bk.)
9781421407937
1421407930

Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013.

English

1 online resource (xi, 317 pages) : illustrations

RG527.5.U48 N53 2013eb

618.3/207543

To its proponents, the ultrasound scanner is a safe, reliable, and indispensable aid to diagnosis. In some U.S. states, an ultrasound scan is now required by legislation before a woman can obtain an abortion, adding a new dimension to an already controversial practice. Imaging and Imagining the Fetus engages both the development of a modern medical technology and the concerted critique of that technology. The authors relate the technical and social history of ultrasound imaging-from early experiments in Glasgow in 1956 through wide deployment in the British hospital system by 1975 to its ubiquitous use in maternity clinics throughout the developed world by the end of the twentieth century. Obstetrician Ian Donald and engineer Tom Brown created ultrasound technology in Glasgow, where their prototypes were based on the industrial flaw detector, an instrument readily available to them in the shipbuilding city. As a physician, Donald supported the use of ultrasound for clinical purposes, and as a devout High Anglican he imbued the images with moral significance. He opposed abortion-decisions about which were increasingly guided by the ultrasound technology he pioneered - and he occasionally used ultrasound images to convince pregnant women not to abort the fetuses they could now see. This book explores why earlier innovators failed where Donald and Brown succeeded. It also shows how ultrasound develope

Includes bibliographical references and index.

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