This award will enable the investigator to complete the final chapters of a book in progress, "Engineering Birth: Science, Technology and the 'Perfect Child'". The central thesis is that the new reproductive technologies interact with values and beliefs about human perfectibility, to set norms for the "perfect child." Thus these developments recall, transformed, an old ideology. Parts I and II of the book set the historic and conceptual framework and explore the interaction of the ideology of human perfectibility and the new reproductive technologies today. Part III is the current project and poses the following question: Why, even while invoking the possibility of creating new or improved human beings, does much of the bioethics and feminist literature fail to discuss how standards are being set, the criteria themselves, and what the meaning might be for the future direction and use of such reproductive research? The current research examines the bioethics and feminist critiques, situating them in their milieus outside the medical arena, and compares them with values, norms and standards being set in medical contexts. The chapters in Part III will show how the different cultures in which the critiques are embedded inhibit analysis of the ways technology and values interact to shape standards of human perfectibility and the "perfect child." These differences inhibit dialogue as well as attempts to influence or change the direction of research. Some of the feminist literature, however, provides ways to bridge these divides. Drawing on an experiential methodology that links theory and practice, this work suggests integrative models for evaluating procreative norms, and thus a means to link ethics, research and practice. The project calls attention to the positive role feminist perspectives can play in integrating ethical perspectives and in setting frameworks for meaningful dialogue between persons making ethical judgments and those involved in scientific and technological research. The book manuscript that will result is scheduled for publication in a new series on the philosophy of technology at a university press. This research has an important and timely focus; its results will be useful and accessible to a wide audience. The qualifications and track record of the investigator are excellent; institutional support is very good; the research plan is sensible; the budget is very modest. Support is highly recommended.
