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Paper short abstract:

The paper is based on an ethnographic research, conducted in Spain, aimed at understanding the process of turning the human fetus into a physical subject. It shows how the different uses of sonogram allow to shape the fetus simultaneously as an individual, a kin and a patient.

Paper long abstract:

The paper is based on an ethnographic research, conducted in a Spanish city, aimed at understanding the process of turning the human fetus into a physical subject. Participant observation and interviews have been carried on in different settings, including public and private health facilities, trade shows for expecting parents, and political street demonstrations. In this way, an insight was gained into the social and cultural production, use, diffusion and implications of knowledge about - and practices of - the fetal body.

This paper will focus on the circulation of technologies, techniques and images across these contexts. Fetal sonogram, as well as the images and sounds it produces, is attributed a pivotal role in antenatal care; nevertheless, their use goes beyond it, and they are expanding outside health care settings, with different scopes and implications. Sonogram's intimate and familiar aspect - already described and analyzed in anthropology - is gaining momentum. It is used to reassure the pregnant women, to create memories, and to provide them with different kinds of antenatal encounters with the fetus, eventually to be shared with partners or relatives.

The proposed paper shows how the different uses of sonogram, as well as the refusal to use it, allow to shape the fetus simultaneously as an individual, a kin and a patient.