It seems plausible to extend to the field of Disability Studies a certain nominalist point of view which is evident in Foucault’s work. What I have in mind is an “implantation of impairments” thesis, modelled after what Foucault calls the “implantation of perversions.” After sketching some features of this Foucauldian argument, I discuss the ideas of knowledge and power that it presupposes, then outline a critical perspective on Foucault’s nominalism.

The provocative essays in this volume respond to Foucault's call to question what is regarded as natural, inevitable, ethical, and liberating, while they ...

This study brings together two important literatures together in the one volume. One concerns the role of quality assessments in social policy, especially health policy. The second concerns ethical and social issues raised by prenatal testing for disability. Hitherto, these two literatures have had little contact with each other: few scholars have written about both, or have compared the two domains in a systematic way, while people with disabilities and disability scholars are underrepresented in recent discussion on health policy and (...) quality of assessment. This book turns the perspectives of disability scholars on issues that have largely been the province of health methodology, policy and philosophy, while angling philosophical policy analysis on problems that have largely been the province of disability scholarship. This volume will be sought after by bioethicists, philosophers, and specialists in disability studies and healthcare economics. (shrink)