Rewriting fertilization: Trust, pain, and exit points

Feminists debate the nature of in vitro fertilization (IVF) and women's choice in relation to it. In this article, we focus on the process of becoming and being an IVF user without questioning women's choices. This process is empirically examined within a feminist body approach. Based on interviews with 22 Israeli Jewish women who went through IVF treatments in two infertility clinics where one of the authors has herself undergone IVF treatment, the article focuses on women's pain. We ask how IVF users learn about, and manage pain, and whether the pain they experience drove them to abandon the treatment. The analysis we present reveals a process, based and shaped by the women's trust in IVF and by an inner struggle. Attempting to cope with pain, the women relied on an image of their bodies as detached from their souls, and they initiated exit points from IVF treatment once their emotional experience became powerful to the extent that such detachment could no longer be sustained.     

Sudden unexpected death in infancy and childhood due to undiagnosed neoplasia: an autopsy study

Sudden unexpected death due to clinically undiagnosed neoplasia in infancy and childhood (SUDNIC) is a rare phenomenon, with only small numbers of cases reported in the literature. In the majority of instances, the tumors involve critical structures within the heart or central nervous system and include gliomas, medulloblastomas, rhabdomyomas, and neoplasms of stromal elements. A 20-year retrospective review of autopsy records from the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, was performed (1984-2003, n = 4926), and 7 cases of SUDNIC were identified (0.14%). In addition, 1 case was obtained from the files of the Children's and Women's Health Centre of British Columbia, Vancouver. Diagnoses included 2 cases of acute leukemia (1 myelogenous, 1 lymphoblastic), 2 cases of mediastinal lymphoblastic lymphoma (pre-T cell type), 1 papillary fibroelastoma of the mitral valve prolapsing into and totally occluding the left anterior descending coronary artery, 1 medulloblastoma, 1 Wilms tumor associated with fatal intraperitoneal hemorrhage, and 1 widely disseminated gastric carcinoma. These cases demonstrate that infants and children may have minimal or no symptoms in the presence of significant disease and highlight the need for a thorough autopsy examination in cases of sudden unexpected death in infancy and childhood.     

A Switch in Time Saves Nine: Institutions,Strategic Actors,and FDR's Court-Packing Plan

President Roosevelt's attempt to add asmany as six additional justices to theSupreme Court through his infamous``court-packing plan'' of 1937 has long beenheralded as a misuse of presidential powerthat nearly undermined the integrity of ourconstitutional system. Using an analyticnarrative framework, we offer analternative theoretical account of theevents and argue that Roosevelt used theproposal to obtain his immediate goal: ashift in policy direction of the Court. Our framework is supported with historicalevidence, suggesting that all of the actorswere acting rationally by attempting tomaximize their payoffs.