Conceiving Risk, Bearing Responsibility: Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and the Diagnosis of Moral Disorder

Abstract

The reviewer explains that this book launches a fairly formidable assault upon the social and medical acceptance in the United States of fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and related concepts such as fetal alcohol effect, and upon the influence that this has had on medical and lay perceptions about the risks of drinking during pregnancy. The author considers the way in which the identification of the relatively rare FAS, which has only been associated clearly with heavy alcohol consumption during pregnancy, has led in the United States to recommendations against all drinking of alcohol in pregnancy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)