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Placing the unborn: On the social recognition of new life

Scientific and popular attention is increasingly focused on the status of the embryo, foetus and child, both in relation to assisted conception and to debates and practice concerning abortion. The underlying question concerning reproductive technology, law making and religious debate alike concerns the point at which the early human organism should be 'recognized' in some way as an independent being. Within the literature of anthropology, there is plenty of evidence about cultural theories of human conception and also about the ceremonial confirmation of a child's place in society. There is little, however, on peri-natal practices, a zone often relegated to 'nature' rather than 'society'. However, Mauss pointed out the importance through human history of the ways in which 'recognition' is extended to a potential child. This paper draws on the ethnography of Kaberry, Raum and others to underline the importance of this insight, to criticize utilitarian treatments of infanticide and abortion in 'primitive society', and to portray the moral and social complexity that everywhere surrounds the beginnings of personhood. In conclusion it is suggested that modern ways of detecting sentience in the foetus should play a part in the rationalizing of any 'legal and ethical framework' governing medical practice.