The unfinished child

Roach, V

The unfinished child

Roach, V

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Publication Type:: Thesis
Issue Date:: 2011

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	Filename	Description	Size
	01front.pdf	contents and abstract	169.32 kB	Adobe PDF	View/Open
	02whole.pdf	thesis	2.29 MB	Adobe PDF	View/Open

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Roach, V
dc.date.accessioned	2015-06-12T04:06:08Z
dc.date.available	2015-06-12T04:06:08Z
dc.date.issued	2011
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/36099
dc.description	University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.	en_US
dc.description.abstract	NO FULL TEXT AVAILABLE. Access is restricted indefinitely. ----- This thesis, written from the very particular perspective of an older sibling, comprises a personal account of one family’s experience with Down syndrome. By way of a series of interconnected essays, it draws upon the traditions of memoir, cultural studies, literary and art criticism, sociology and psychology to navigate its way around some of the classic pitfalls - such as a tendency to romanticise, pathologise or even fetishise the condition. Intimate, everyday relationships provide a kind of moral compass. The photographs of Diane Arbus and the writings of disabled activist David Hevey and former federal disability commissioner, the late Elizabeth Hastings, become important signposts along the way. The current medical and scientific push towards the eradication of Down syndrome through pre-natal testing and genetic engineering acts as a kind of creative crucible for the ideas and arguments expressed in The Unfinished Child. While not under-estimating the significant challenges faced by someone with this distinctive condition, or the extra physical and emotional workload shouldered by their family, this thesis suggests that it might also be seen as part of our rich biological inheritance and comes to the conclusion that its genetically-engineered absence could upset the social ecology in ways as yet unimagined.	en_US
dc.format	Thesis (MCA Res)	en_US
dc.language.iso	en	en_US
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess
dc.rights	The author owns the copyright in this thesis including all reproduction and reuse rights for the work. The work may not be altered without the permission of the copyright owner. Attribution is essential when quoting or paraphrasing from this thesis.
dc.title	The unfinished child	en_US
dc.type	Thesis
utslib.copyright.status	closed_access

Abstract:

NO FULL TEXT AVAILABLE. Access is restricted indefinitely. ----- This thesis, written from the very particular perspective of an older sibling, comprises a personal account of one family’s experience with Down syndrome. By way of a series of interconnected essays, it draws upon the traditions of memoir, cultural studies, literary and art criticism, sociology and psychology to navigate its way around some of the classic pitfalls - such as a tendency to romanticise, pathologise or even fetishise the condition. Intimate, everyday relationships provide a kind of moral compass. The photographs of Diane Arbus and the writings of disabled activist David Hevey and former federal disability commissioner, the late Elizabeth Hastings, become important signposts along the way. The current medical and scientific push towards the eradication of Down syndrome through pre-natal testing and genetic engineering acts as a kind of creative crucible for the ideas and arguments expressed in The Unfinished Child. While not under-estimating the significant challenges faced by someone with this distinctive condition, or the extra physical and emotional workload shouldered by their family, this thesis suggests that it might also be seen as part of our rich biological inheritance and comes to the conclusion that its genetically-engineered absence could upset the social ecology in ways as yet unimagined.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/36099