Paper Short Abstract:

Starting from the unsettling ambiguity of the aborted but not-quite-dead fetus, this presentation scrutinizes clinic staff's "ontological careographies" through which life/death are made in the context of disability-selective pregnancy termination in Austria.

Paper Abstract:

Starting from the unsettling ambiguity of the aborted but not-quite-dead fetus at the threshold of viability, this presentation scrutinizes how clinical staff interpret fetal life signs following disability-selective pregnancy terminations in Austria. Understanding these interpretations as attempts to provide certainty in a context of ontological uncertainty, I analyze them as acts of care that are part of intricate “ontological careographies” and have considerable symbolic and material consequences for patients/parents and staff. Overall, I argue that the interpretation of life signs is not a simple matter of biological “facts” and that what is ultimately at stake is the active making of life and death.