A magic bullet for the “African” mother? Neo-Imperial reproductive futurism and the pharmaceutical “solution” to the HIV/AIDS Crisis.
On the basis of a close reading of popular and medical texts which address a debate over the ethics of clinical drug trials funded by the United States and designed mainly for sub-Saharan Africa, I argue that international public health discourse about infant HIV infection in that region reflects and legitimates a neo-imperialist, anti-reproductive justice ideology. Participants share a fetal-centered logic that US-funded biomedicine must shoulder the burden of rescuing sub-Saharan Africa from itself by using the bodies of HIV-positive pregnant women to transmit biomedicine's magic bullet—antiretroviral drugs—to the next generation. The survival of the fetus, disguised as the well-being of the HIV-positive woman and accomplished by the magic of biomedical research, becomes the survival of a region otherwise doomed by its present state of economic, political, and medical incapacity. This version of what queer theorist Lee Edelman (2004, No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive) calls “reproductive futurism” redounds to the benefit of the more explicitly women-hating and nationalist ideologies of still-powerful right-wing movements against reproductive and sexual rights.
Booth
Karen M
KM
D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000191:economics / Q000208:ethnology / Q000266:history / Q000523:psychology; D017954:Africa South of the Sahara / Q000208:ethnology; D018501:Antirheumatic Agents / Q000191:economics / Q000266:history; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic / Q000191:economics / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology; D004992:Ethics, Medical / Q000193:education / Q000266:history; D004994:Ethics, Pharmacy / Q000193:education / Q000266:history; D005260:Female; D006678:HIV; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D010358:Patient Participation / Q000191:economics / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology; D019999:Pharmaceutical Solutions / Q000191:economics / Q000266:history; D011057:Politics; D011247:Pregnancy; D011634:Public Health / Q000191:economics / Q000193:education / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D014481:United States / Q000208:ethnology; D016387:Women's Health / Q000208:ethnology / Q000266:history
D018501:Antirheumatic Agents; D019999:Pharmaceutical Solutions