"Human Life is Inviolable": Costa Rica's Human Rights Crucible.

The Costa Rican Constitutional Court banned in vitro fertilization in 2000, citing the inviolability of life. Conservatives hoped the ban would initiate a hemispheric movement to protect the unborn. But in 2012 the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled that reproductive rights are human rights and that women's rights take precedence over embryo rights. The episode precipitated a national identity crisis: how could a country that supports universal health care be labeled a human rights violator as a result of its efforts to protect nascent human life? Expanding the health and human rights framework helps us appreciate how IVF became Costa Rica's human rights crucible.

The Dublin Declaration on Maternal Health Care and Anti-Abortion Activism: Examples from Latin America.

The Dublin Declaration on Maternal Healthcare-issued by self-declared pro-life activists in Ireland in 2012-states unequivocally that abortion is never medically necessary, even to save the life of a pregnant woman. This article examines the influence of the Dublin Declaration on abortion politics in Latin America, especially El Salvador and Chile, where it has recently been used in pro-life organizing to cast doubt on the notion that legalizing abortion will reduce maternal mortality. Its framers argue that legalizing abortion will not improve maternal mortality rates, but reproductive rights advocates respond that the Dublin Declaration is junk science designed to preserve the world's most restrictive abortion laws. Analyzing the strategy and impact of the Dublin Declaration brings to light one of the tactics used in anti-abortion organizing.

Culture, Health, and Science: A Multidisciplinary Liberal Arts Alternative to the Public Health Major.

Since the 2003 call by the Institute of Medicine to educate undergraduates in public health, various models have emerged for incorporating public health into the liberal arts and sciences. One model is a professionalized public health major that uses core public health competencies to prepare a workforce of health professionals. A second model offers a broad-based public health major rooted in liberal arts principles, resisting the utilitarian trend toward human capital formation. A third model resists even the label of "public health," preferring instead to introduce undergraduates to many ways of analyzing human health and healing. The multidisciplinary Culture, Health, and Science Program, based on six key commitments for preparing liberal arts students to analyze health and respond to global health challenges, is offered as an alternative to the public health major.

Honrar a Rosa Parks? Intentos de los sectores católicos conservadores a favor de los derechos en la América Latina contemporánea / Claiming Rosa Parks: conservative catholic bids for rights in contemporary Latin America / Honrar Rosa Parks? Tentativas dos setores católicos conservadores a favor dos direitos na América Latina contemporânea

Cuando en el año 2009 se otorgó en Argentina el Premio Rosa Parks a una senadora conservadora por su oposición abierta al uso de anticonceptivos, a la esterilización y al aborto, era evidente que algo extraño ocurría. En este artículo se documenta la apropiación de los discursos de "derechos humanos" por parte de los sectores católicos conservadores en América Latina, donde el éxito reciente de los movimientos sociales a favor de los derechos sexuales y reproductivos ha generado una reacción significativa. En particular, se indagan los esfuerzos por parte de académicos católicos especialistas en leyes para justificar lo que denominan "un enfoque distintivamente latinoamericano hacia los derechos humanos", dejando de lado décadas de activismo por los derechos humanos emprendido por otros sectores. Quienes se oponen a los derechos reproductivos y sexuales despliegan un discurso de derechos de forma selectiva y estratégica, utilizándolo como una cubierta secular para promover políticas pro-vida y pro-familia.

When the Rosa Parks Prize was awarded to a conservative Argentine senator in 2009 for her outspoken opposition to contraception, sterilisation, and abortion, it was clear that something odd was happening. This paper documents the appropriation of "human rights" discourses by conservative Catholics in Latin America, where the recent success of reproductive and sexual rights social movements has generated a significant backlash. It specifically traces an effort by Catholic legal scholars to justify what they term "a distinctively Latin American approach to human rights" while ignoring decades of human rights activism by others. Opponents of reproductive and sexual rights are deploying rights-talk selectively and strategically, I argue, using it as secular cover to advance pro-life and pro-family policies.

Quando se outorgou o Prêmio Rosa Parks na Argentina a uma senadora conservadora, no ano de 2009, por sua oposição aberta ao uso de anticoncepcionais, à esterilização e ao aborto, era evidente que algo estranho acontecia. Nesta exposição documenta-se a apropriação dos discursos de "direitos humanos" por parte dos setores católicos conservadores na América Latina, onde o êxito recente dos movimentos sociais a favor dos direitos sexuais e reprodutivos gerou uma reação significativa. Em particular, indaga-se sobre os esforços por parte de acadêmicos católicos especialistas em leis para justificar o que denominam de "um enfoque distintivamente latino-americano para os direitos humanos", deixando de lado décadas de ativismo pelos direitos humanos empreendido por outros setores. Quem se opõe aos direitos reprodutivos e sexuais desdobra ou faz um desdobramento de um discurso de direitos de forma seletiva e estratégica, em minha opinião, utilizando-o como uma coberta/divisória secular para promover as políticas pró-vida pró-família.

Claiming Rosa Parks: conservative Catholic bids for 'rights' in contemporary Latin America.

When the Rosa Parks Prize was awarded to a conservative Argentine senator in 2009 for her outspoken opposition to contraception, sterilisation and abortion, it was clear that something odd was happening. This paper documents the appropriation of 'human rights' discourses by conservative Catholics in Latin America, where the recent success of reproductive and sexual rights social movements has generated a significant backlash. It specifically traces an effort by Catholic legal scholars to justify what they term 'a distinctively Latin American approach to human rights' while ignoring decades of human rights activism by others. Opponents of reproductive and sexual rights are deploying rights-talk selectively and strategically, it is argued, using this as secular cover to advance pro-life and pro-family policies.

Reproductive governance in Latin America.

This paper develops the concept of reproductive governance as an analytic tool for tracing the shifting political rationalities of population and reproduction. As advanced here, the concept of reproductive governance refers to the mechanisms through which different historical configurations of actors - such as state, religious, and international financial institutions, NGOs, and social movements - use legislative controls, economic inducements, moral injunctions, direct coercion, and ethical incitements to produce, monitor, and control reproductive behaviours and population practices. Examples are drawn from Latin America, where reproductive governance is undergoing a dramatic transformation as public policy conversations are coalescing around new moral regimes and rights-based actors through debates about abortion, emergency contraception, sterilisation, migration, and assisted reproductive technologies. Reproductive discourses are increasingly framed through morality and contestations over 'rights', where rights-bearing citizens are pitted against each other in claiming reproductive, sexual, indigenous, and natural rights, as well as the 'right to life' of the unborn. The concept of reproductive governance can be applied to other settings in order to understand shifting political rationalities within the domain of reproduction.

The rise and demise of a collection of human fetuses at Mount Holyoke College.

When I found myself at the center of a controversy over the disposition of an old collection of human fetal specimens at Mount Holyoke College, I was motivated to explore the historical transformation that turned embryo collecting for research and pedagogical purposes from a noble to a disparaged practice, and dead fetuses from prized anatomical specimens to ugly, anomalous entities. Using Linda Layne's analysis of the literal and symbolic erasure of dead fetuses from American cultural discourse, this article examines the shifting circumstances that once encouraged the collection of fetal specimens but that now mandate their disappearance. Using Mount Holyoke as a case study, it describes the scientific logic and specific social exchange networks that led to the acquisition of hundreds of fetal specimens in the first half of the 20th century. It also examines the factors--including changes in biology education, concerns about handling hazardous fixatives, and especially the prominence of beautified and lifelike fetal images consistent with the so-called "culture of life"--that prompt the dissolution and demise of human embryo and fetal collections.

A social biography of Carnegie embryo no. 836.

A tiny, sectioned embryo specimen known as Carnegie no. 836 has served as the prototype for Stage 13 (28-32 days) since the 1910s. Recently digitalized and reanimated for the 21st century, this singular specimen is now being used to develop 3D and 4D visualizations. Yet the social origins of the specimen have been largely forgotten. This essay traces the biography of 836 from its origins in a young woman's life, through sectioning and transformation into a scientific specimen, to its contemporary manifestations as a symbol of life. By reuniting the specimen with its story, we can appreciate how cultural attitudes toward embryo specimens have changed over the past century.

"Properly disposed of": a history of embryo disposal and the changing claims on fetal remains.

This paper explores recent controversies concerning the disposal of embryonic and fetal remains in order to ask how such remains came to be classified as "medical waste." Based on archival research into the social history of human embryo collecting in Baltimore, Maryland, in the early 20th century, I argue that the classification of embryos and fetal remains as medical waste can be traced to a pragmatic alliance between embryologists and state functionaries. Embryologists relied on the state to assist them in acquiring thousands of human embryo remains for scientific study, while state authorities relied on embryologists to provide authoritative knowledge that could be used to facilitate state control over nascent citizens. This alliance contributed to the development of an "embryological worldview," in which human embryos were cast as objective biological "specimens" of use only to embryologists. This exclusive view of the social value of embryos and fetal tissue is now being challenged as other constituencies claim jurisdiction over the remains in order to advance diverse social agendas.

Participacion comunitaria en salud: la politica de atencion primaria en Costa Rica / Community participation in health: the policy of primary care in Costa Rica

Costa Rica ha alcanzado reputacíón internacional por sus programas de atención primaria en salud, si bien el gobierno no ha logrado involucrar a las comunidades en la planificación ni en la puesta en práctica de la atención en salud. En este libro, escrito por una antropóloga médica, se analizan los obstáculos que enfrenta la participación comunitaria en la salud. Mediante la combinación de una amplia etnografia local y un análisis de la política de ayuda externa, Lynn M. Morgan muestra cómo la participación comunan en Costa Rica fue víctima de los conflictos políticos nacionales e internacionales. (AU)