University of Cambridge > Talks.cam > Departmental Seminars in History and Philosophy of Science > Infertility – the making of a modern experience, Germany 1870–1930

  Browse A-Z

Log in

Cambridge users (raven)details Other usersdetails No account?details

Information on

Subscribing to talksdetails Finding a talkdetails Adding a talkdetails Disseminating talksdetails Help and Documentationdetails

Infertility – the making of a modern experience, Germany 1870–1930

Add to your list(s) Download to your calendar using vCal

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Helen Curry.

When IVF was introduced, it was seen as ushering in a new era marked by the ability to manipulate life. Regarding infertility, IVF was perceived as a watershed, neatly dividing a past in which infertility had been regarded as fate and present in which involuntarily childless couples faced unprecedented but ethically problematic options. Historians of medicine would not subscribe to this view. Rather they would point to the fact that infertility had long been perceived as a medical condition, demanding sound diagnosis and at times rather aggressive forms of treatment. In my paper, I will ask how the meaning of infertility changed during the late 19th and the early 20th century. I will look at the forms of diagnosis and treatment that were available during this period but also at the changing value Western societies attributed to motherhood and fatherhood, to children and to the ability to shape one’s own life course. Was there something specifically ‘modern’ about the ways in which infertility was perceived during this period? How does it compare to earlier times? And if there was substantial change, how can we understand the relationship between broader social and cultural changes and the dynamics brought about by advances in science and medicine?

This talk is part of the Departmental Seminars in History and Philosophy of Science series.

Tell a friend about this talk:

This talk is included in these lists:

Note that ex-directory lists are not shown.

Other lists

Interfacial Studies on a Charged Surface in Oil by Contact Angle Measurements Type the title of a new list here Winton Discussions

Other talks

'Ways of Reading, Looking, and Imagining: Contemporary Fiction and Its Optics' Making Refuge: Academics at Risk TALK CANCELLED Targets for drug discovery: from target validation to the clinic Amphibian Evolution through Deep Time: Fossils, Genes and Regeneration How to lead a happy life in the midst of uncertainty The genetics of depression A feast of languages: multilingualism in neuro-typical and atypical populations Single Cell Seminars (October) Market Socialism and Community Rating in Health Insurance Protein Folding, Evolution and Interactions Symposium Symplectic topology of K3 surfaces via mirror symmetry On being a "barang": Experiences of interviewing fishermen in Cambodia and Indonesia
 

© 2006-2025 Talks.cam, University of Cambridge. Contact Us | Help and Documentation | Privacy and Publicity