Birth Rights and Rites

This multi-disciplinary collection of essays from the Cambridge Socio-Legal Group is concerned with the varying circumstances, manner, timing and experiences of birth. It contains essays from a wide range of disciplines including law, medicine, anthropology, history and sociology, examining birth from the perspectives of mother, doctor, midwife and father. Questions considered in the book include: who has power during the birthing process? How has the experience of birth changed over time? Should birth mark a significant change in the legal status of the foetus? What is the proper role of birth registration? What role, if any, do fathers have in the birthing process? What legal rights should the woman have to refuse treatment during the birthing process? What is the significance of changes of the age at which women give birth? This stimulating collection of papers provides new insights into one of life's most momentous moments.

Fatemeh Ebtehaj is associate member of the Centre for Family Research, University of Cambridge.

Jonathan Herring is Professor of Law at the University of Oxford and Fellow in Law at Exeter College, Oxford, UK.

Martin Johnson is Professor of Reproductive Sciences in the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Christ's College.

Martin Richards is Emeritus Professor of Family Research at the Centre for Family Research, University of Cambridge.