Rendering the ‘Child’: Ekphrasis, Postphenomenology, and the Ultrasound Informed Consent Act.

• In Event: Visual (In)Sensibilities I

Abstract

This presentation uses postphenomenology and historical research to explore the deployment of and motivation for ekphrasis in The Ultrasound Informed Consent Act. The Ultrasound Informed Consent Act- H.R. 492 is a federal bill that seeks to compel US abortion providers to display and detail ultrasound images of fetuses to abortion seekers. Some form of the Act is law in thirteen states, with similar legislation being considered in many more. A summary of the Act states providers are " to perform an obstetric ultrasound on the pregnant woman, provide a simultaneous explanation of what the ultrasound is depicting, display the ultrasound images so the woman may view them, and provide a complete medical description of the images, including the dimensions of the embryo or fetus, cardiac activity if present and visible, and the presence of external members and internal organs if present and viewable." The Act prescribes what is in poetics and rhetoric called an ekphrasis, a detailed description bringing an image before the eyes. Ekphraseis have been used since Ancient Greece to make present for readers artistic, technical, mathematical, scientific, and medical artifacts. In the case of the Ultrasound Informed Consent Act, the liminal figure of the fetus is made present through neonatal technology and vivid description in order to ‘inform’ women on their abortions. This presentation contributes to STS and postphenomenological investigations on the role of mediating technologies like ultrasound to bring images (and the ethical situations they create) to life.

Author

• Jonathan Weedon