A Child Is Born (book)
Encyclopedia
A Child Is Born is a 1965 photographic book by Swedish photojournalist Lennart Nilsson
. The book consists of photographs charting the development of the human embryo
and fetus
from conception to birth; it is reportedly the best-selling illustrated book ever published. Nilsson's photographs are accompanied by text, written by doctors, describing prenatal development and offering advice on antenatal care. The images were among the first of developing fetuses to reach a wide popular audience. Their reproduction in the April 30, 1965 edition of Life
magazine sparked so much interest that the entire print run, of eight million copies, sold out within four days; they won Nilsson the American National Press Association Picture of the Year award, and reached a sufficiently iconic status to be chosen for launch into space aboard the NASA
probes Voyager 1
and Voyager 2
. The book and its images have figured in debates about abortion
and the beginning of life, and the book is the subject of a substantial body of feminist critique.
proceeding toward an ovum
; cell division, implantation, and the development of the embryo
are then illustrated. The text accompanying the photographs of the woman supplies some antenatal care advice.
, an American magazine, marked the publication of A Child Is Born by reproducing in its 30 April 1965 edition 16 of the book's photographs. The pictures were run simultaneously in the British Sunday Times and in Paris Match
. All eight million printed copies of Life containing the images sold out within four days. The book became reportedly the all-time best-selling illustrated book published; its ubiquity led the academic Barbara Duden to deem it and its pictures "part of the mental universe of our time". Images, text, and diagrams from the book have been reproduced in works as diverse as guides to child protection, development science and anatomy textbooks, and pregnancy manuals. It is widely cited as a pregnancy resource in parenting manuals, and the academic Rebecca Kukla has argued that the book was so culturally influential as to have mediated and to some extent determined the way pregnant women understand their own pregnancies. Images from the book were sent into space aboard the Voyager 1
and Voyager 2
space probes. The American Library Association
regards it, alongside Gray's Anatomy
, as a core medical reference work for libraries.
The book was often cited as presenting the first images of a live fetus in utero. In fact, Geraldine Flanagan's The First Nine Months Of Life had in 1962 compiled a similar set of fetal images from medical archives.
The images played an important role in debates about abortion
and the beginning of human life. Nilsson himself declined to comment on the origins of some of the photographs' subjects, which in fact included many images of terminated and miscarried fetuses: all but one of the images that appeared in Life were of fetuses that had been surgically removed from the womb. Nilsson also refused to be drawn on the question of the point at which life begins, describing himself as a journalist and the debate as one for other authorities. Pro-life
campaigners perceived and presented the book's images as evidence that a fetus is a well-developed, discrete human person from well before birth. Pro-choice
activists, on the other hand, have portrayed the images (and the technology they represent) as evidence of medical and imaging techniques that now allow serious fetal defects to be detected very early and furnish pregnant parents with more information upon which to base choices. Some critics have described as ironic the image's popularity with pro-life campaigners who argue that the fetus is a living human, given that many of them depict (surgically or spontaneously) aborted fetuses.
Both the popularity of the images with pro-life
campaigners and the photographic techniques, which have been described as eliding the presence of the woman in whose womb the fetus is developing, have made the book the subject of substantial feminist critique. Some of these criticisms have addressed the book's language, which often describes the photographs' subjects as "persons" or "babies". Others argue that the focus on the fetus that the book promoted rendered the woman in whose body it was developing invisible and unimportant, or contributed to an atmosphere in which the woman and the fetus were seen as remote, opposite, and in competition with one another for rights and personhood. Others, though, have described Nilsson's book as placing the story of fetal development firmly within the context of the woman's body and life. Some scholars have sought to deconstruct
the techniques used and choices made in the images' production, pointing out for example that lighting magnification is used to give month-old fetuses the appearance of a much more viable six-month-old, and lightning techniques used to replace the fetus's deep red skin tone with a "baby-like" pink or gold tone.
version of the book was produced in 1994, rendering the images interactive. How Was I Born?, an adaptation of the book's text for children, featured many of the same images.
Lennart Nilsson
Lennart Nilsson is a Swedish photographer and scientist. He is noted for his photographs of in vivo human embryos and other medical subjects once considered unphotographable, and more generally for his extreme macro photography...
. The book consists of photographs charting the development of the human embryo
Embryo
An embryo is a multicellular diploid eukaryote in its earliest stage of development, from the time of first cell division until birth, hatching, or germination...
and fetus
Fetus
A fetus is a developing mammal or other viviparous vertebrate after the embryonic stage and before birth.In humans, the fetal stage of prenatal development starts at the beginning of the 11th week in gestational age, which is the 9th week after fertilization.-Etymology and spelling variations:The...
from conception to birth; it is reportedly the best-selling illustrated book ever published. Nilsson's photographs are accompanied by text, written by doctors, describing prenatal development and offering advice on antenatal care. The images were among the first of developing fetuses to reach a wide popular audience. Their reproduction in the April 30, 1965 edition of Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
magazine sparked so much interest that the entire print run, of eight million copies, sold out within four days; they won Nilsson the American National Press Association Picture of the Year award, and reached a sufficiently iconic status to be chosen for launch into space aboard the NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
probes Voyager 1
Voyager 1
The Voyager 1 spacecraft is a 722-kilogram space probe launched by NASA in 1977, to study the outer Solar System and eventually interstellar space. Operating for as of today , the spacecraft receives routine commands and transmits data back to the Deep Space Network. At a distance of as of...
and Voyager 2
Voyager 2
The Voyager 2 spacecraft is a 722-kilogram space probe launched by NASA on August 20, 1977 to study the outer Solar System and eventually interstellar space...
. The book and its images have figured in debates about abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
and the beginning of life, and the book is the subject of a substantial body of feminist critique.
Synopsis
The book proceeds along two "tracks": one series of photographs and accompanying text depict the development of the fetus from conception through to birth; the other shows a woman and her partner as her pregnancy progresses. Early images show spermSperm
The term sperm is derived from the Greek word sperma and refers to the male reproductive cells. In the types of sexual reproduction known as anisogamy and oogamy, there is a marked difference in the size of the gametes with the smaller one being termed the "male" or sperm cell...
proceeding toward an ovum
Ovum
An ovum is a haploid female reproductive cell or gamete. Both animals and embryophytes have ova. The term ovule is used for the young ovum of an animal, as well as the plant structure that carries the female gametophyte and egg cell and develops into a seed after fertilization...
; cell division, implantation, and the development of the embryo
Embryo
An embryo is a multicellular diploid eukaryote in its earliest stage of development, from the time of first cell division until birth, hatching, or germination...
are then illustrated. The text accompanying the photographs of the woman supplies some antenatal care advice.
Reception
LifeLife (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
, an American magazine, marked the publication of A Child Is Born by reproducing in its 30 April 1965 edition 16 of the book's photographs. The pictures were run simultaneously in the British Sunday Times and in Paris Match
Paris Match
Paris Match is a French weekly magazine. It covers major national and international news along with celebrity lifestyle features. It was founded in 1949 by the industrialist Jean Prouvost....
. All eight million printed copies of Life containing the images sold out within four days. The book became reportedly the all-time best-selling illustrated book published; its ubiquity led the academic Barbara Duden to deem it and its pictures "part of the mental universe of our time". Images, text, and diagrams from the book have been reproduced in works as diverse as guides to child protection, development science and anatomy textbooks, and pregnancy manuals. It is widely cited as a pregnancy resource in parenting manuals, and the academic Rebecca Kukla has argued that the book was so culturally influential as to have mediated and to some extent determined the way pregnant women understand their own pregnancies. Images from the book were sent into space aboard the Voyager 1
Voyager 1
The Voyager 1 spacecraft is a 722-kilogram space probe launched by NASA in 1977, to study the outer Solar System and eventually interstellar space. Operating for as of today , the spacecraft receives routine commands and transmits data back to the Deep Space Network. At a distance of as of...
and Voyager 2
Voyager 2
The Voyager 2 spacecraft is a 722-kilogram space probe launched by NASA on August 20, 1977 to study the outer Solar System and eventually interstellar space...
space probes. The American Library Association
American Library Association
The American Library Association is a non-profit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with more than 62,000 members....
regards it, alongside Gray's Anatomy
Gray's Anatomy
Gray's Anatomy is an English-language human anatomy textbook originally written by Henry Gray. The book is widely regarded as an extremely influential work on the subject, and has continued to be revised and republished from its initial publication in 1858 to the present day...
, as a core medical reference work for libraries.
The book was often cited as presenting the first images of a live fetus in utero. In fact, Geraldine Flanagan's The First Nine Months Of Life had in 1962 compiled a similar set of fetal images from medical archives.
The images played an important role in debates about abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
and the beginning of human life. Nilsson himself declined to comment on the origins of some of the photographs' subjects, which in fact included many images of terminated and miscarried fetuses: all but one of the images that appeared in Life were of fetuses that had been surgically removed from the womb. Nilsson also refused to be drawn on the question of the point at which life begins, describing himself as a journalist and the debate as one for other authorities. Pro-life
Pro-life
Opposition to the legalization of abortion is centered around the pro-life, or anti-abortion, movement, a social and political movement opposing elective abortion on moral grounds and supporting its legal prohibition or restriction...
campaigners perceived and presented the book's images as evidence that a fetus is a well-developed, discrete human person from well before birth. Pro-choice
Pro-choice
Support for the legalization of abortion is centered around the pro-choice movement, a sociopolitical movement supporting the ethical view that a woman should have the legal right to elective abortion, meaning the right to terminate her pregnancy....
activists, on the other hand, have portrayed the images (and the technology they represent) as evidence of medical and imaging techniques that now allow serious fetal defects to be detected very early and furnish pregnant parents with more information upon which to base choices. Some critics have described as ironic the image's popularity with pro-life campaigners who argue that the fetus is a living human, given that many of them depict (surgically or spontaneously) aborted fetuses.
Both the popularity of the images with pro-life
Pro-life
Opposition to the legalization of abortion is centered around the pro-life, or anti-abortion, movement, a social and political movement opposing elective abortion on moral grounds and supporting its legal prohibition or restriction...
campaigners and the photographic techniques, which have been described as eliding the presence of the woman in whose womb the fetus is developing, have made the book the subject of substantial feminist critique. Some of these criticisms have addressed the book's language, which often describes the photographs' subjects as "persons" or "babies". Others argue that the focus on the fetus that the book promoted rendered the woman in whose body it was developing invisible and unimportant, or contributed to an atmosphere in which the woman and the fetus were seen as remote, opposite, and in competition with one another for rights and personhood. Others, though, have described Nilsson's book as placing the story of fetal development firmly within the context of the woman's body and life. Some scholars have sought to deconstruct
Deconstruction
Deconstruction is a term introduced by French philosopher Jacques Derrida in his 1967 book Of Grammatology. Although he carefully avoided defining the term directly, he sought to apply Martin Heidegger's concept of Destruktion or Abbau, to textual reading...
the techniques used and choices made in the images' production, pointing out for example that lighting magnification is used to give month-old fetuses the appearance of a much more viable six-month-old, and lightning techniques used to replace the fetus's deep red skin tone with a "baby-like" pink or gold tone.
Publishing history
By the first decade of the 21st century the book had reached a fourth edition and been published in 20 countries. A CDCompact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
version of the book was produced in 1994, rendering the images interactive. How Was I Born?, an adaptation of the book's text for children, featured many of the same images.
External links
- Images from A Child Is Born at Nilsson's official website
- Photographic gallery of images from A Child Is Born, in the Daily Telegraph
- The Lonesome Space Traveller: A Child Is Born feature at the Making Visible Embryos project, History and Philosophy of Science Department, University of Cambridge.