Dr. Rothschild is working with Dr. Carl Mitcham, director of the Philosophy and Technology Studies Center at the Polytechnic University, Brooklyn, New York. She will gain knowledge and expertise in order to apply the philosophy of technology to the philosophical and ethical issues raised in her current research on "Engineering Birth: From the 'Perfect Child' to the 'Perfect Race.'" This research explores the relationship between the belief in human perfectability and the new reproductive technologies, tracing the belief historically to its emergence as the "perfect child," made possible by the new technologies. Focusing on the ways ideology and technology interact to transform each other in the area of human reproduction, the book considers how our concepts of human perfection and our very ideas of what makes us human are being challenged and changed by new technological possibilities. This turning-point in the human nature-technology relationship must be set in a larger framework of the history and philosophy of technology. During the fellowship tenure at the Philosophy and Technology Studies Center at the Polytechnic University, Dr. Rothschild will be able to provide this needed larger framework.
