Toward healthy offspring: Some origins of prenatal testing in Spain

Abstract

This paper deals with prenatal diagnosis practices in Spain. For pursuing this aim it reviews both literature on the origins of these practices in foreign countries as well as some of the early publications by Spanish practitioners. Those publications appeared to be connected to previous genetic testing in children such as the case of Down syndrome. Socio-political norms and values of Franco’s regime together with clinicians’ interests on introducing new testing techniques resulted in the stabilization of these practices associated to a reconceptualisation of pregnancy. Although prenatal diagnosis techniques made the body of pregnant women invisible, women’s bodies remained at the core of the technicalisation of contemporary reproductive options.