One of Us – Conjoined Twins and the Future of Normal - Hardcover

Dreger, Alice Domurai

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0674012941 ISBN 13: 9780674012943

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 2004

Synopsis

Must children born with socially challenging anatomies have their bodies changed because others cannot be expected to change their minds? One of Us views conjoined twinning and other "abnormalities" from the point of view of people living with such anatomies, and considers these issues within the larger historical context of anatomical politics. Anatomy matters, Alice Domurat Dreger tells us, because the senses we possess, the muscles we control, and the resources we require to keep our bodies alive limit and guide what we experience in any given context. Her deeply thought-provoking and compassionate work exposes the breadth and depth of that context - the extent of the social frame upon which we construct the "normal." In doing so, the book calls into question assumptions about anatomy and normality, and transforms our understanding of how we are all intricately and inextricably joined.

About this title

About the Author

Alice Domurat Dreger is Associate Professor of Science and Technology Studies in the Lyman Briggs School of Science at Michigan State University and Faculty Associate at the Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences. She is the author of Hermaphrodites and the Medical Invention of Sex from Harvard University Press.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0674012941
• ISBN 13: 9780674012943
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224