ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the theoretical response to reproduction as an axis of biopolitics. It focuses more on the extensive engagement with questions of reproduction and sexual difference if biopolitical theory is to accurately describe the workings of biopower and biopolitics. The chapter also focuses on the issues throughout the process of reproduction where biopolitical theory has been used to throw light on the politics of human reproduction. It considers three topics, corresponding to key aspects of reproductive politics: birth control, prenatal testing and birth. In regards to birth control, the chapter discusses the history of eugenics and the focus on the thanatopolitics of this in principal theories of biopolitics, at the expense of the eugenic control of reproduction. It also discusses the family planning movement that often aligned itself with more explicitly eugenic projects and hence, the implication of feminism in biopolitics.
