ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses that women-centred critiques of birthing technologies augment the concern with the health risks posed by those technologies with concerns about the risks that they pose to human relationships. Ethical issues are raised in connection with three technologies used to detect abnormalities or distress in the fetus in late pregnancy and during labour: Ultrasound for fetal diagnosis, a technology used with increasing frequency in pregnancy and labour and one which some are advocating for routine use in pregnancy; The newest of the imaging technologies, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), which is not now commonly used for fatal imaging; The electronic fatal monitors, some of which work by application of the physical principles of ultrasound behaviour and raise many of the same ethical issues. The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology itself recommends against routine use of ultrasound in pregnancies, largely because its risks are uncertain.
