ABSTRACT
This chapter provides accepted opinion on fetal screening and asks the reader to explore the wider, covert issues related to the production of human beings. Eugenics and politics will be discussed in attempting to highlight some of the reasons for the availability and eventual outcomes of screening. The chapter considers the acceptance of tests on the fetus using the ideas mainly of Foucault and Parsons, for sociological interpretation. Fetal surveillance has enhanced the personal blame culture of the materialist world. The language used is in relation to fetal rights to 'health' as opposed to fetal rights to life, but the definition of health is socially produced; the individual's understanding of health will be determined by their own opinion of 'normality'. The message of health promotion is that health impairment is avoidable by making the right choices; in this case responsibility for choosing is given to the mother.
