• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.95-112
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• 2005

This thesis attempts to describe motherhood discourses in colonial period based on analysing $\lceil$Shinyeosung$\rfloor$ (1923-1934). The motherhood discourses written in $\lceil$Shinyeosung$\rfloor$ were generally divided as follows : (1) women's motherhood (2) recognition of the children (3) eugenic (4) care and education of the children (5) disease of the children and their nursing (6) pregnancy and delivery. Main writers were also experts like medical doctors and professors. It was science that contributed to highlighting the greatness of mother. Science put emphasis on how 'pregnancy, delivery, care' are challenging and dangerous job. Accordingly, every woman, regarded as a potential mother, was requested to equip herself with all kind of skills in care. As new women's role were restricted within private area, they were cut off from various public issue. This type of motherhood became an essential part of 'modern family'.

• Journal of Science and Technology Studies
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.35-57
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• 2014

This study examines how biopolitics, constructed in the West, has been accepted in the Korean peninsula, by focusing on the discourses of "sanitation" and "OTC (Over-the-Counter) medicine" perpetuated in the late Joseon Dynasty and the colonial period. There are two meanings of sanitation in Korea before and after the opening of her ports. The pre-modern sanitation attends to the strong vitality of one's body and mind, while the modern sanitation emphasizes a healthy environment. What is observed between the two meanings of sanitation is a transition of viewpoints from the first-person to the third-person. This transformation has constructed passive bodies that allow the intervention of biopolitics. OTC medicine has reinforced this viewpoint of a third-person and combined it with commodification. The discourses of sanitation and OTC medicine continue, for example, in the strong discourse of regular medical examinations in contemporary Korean society.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.465-477
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• 2014

In Korean Medicine (KM), the Yin-Yang doctrine is still used as a theoretical tool for understanding and explaining the clinical experiences. However, as the traditional culture declined in East Asia and the scientific culture took over, there was an increased negative view on the Yin-Yang doctrine, and thus a heightened distrust over KM. For KM to survive in an unfamiliar culture of science, a novel outlook on the Yin-Yang doctrine is needed. In this sense, I consider a thoroughly medical take on the Yin-Yang doctrine to be most important. The focus needs to be on the goals of medicine: this includes riddance of any discourses on Yin-Yang that cannot contribute to the goals, and an enhancement of the Yin-Yang concept as a rational and scientific terminology. One way to achieve this is by understanding Yin-Yang as a type of metaphor. The Yin-Yang doctrine that is utilized in KM corresponds well to the conceptual metaphor suggested by Lakoff and Johnson. As a metaphor, the Yin-Yang concept plays a role in structuring the target domain, that is life phenomena, metaphorically. Through the Yin-Yang metaphors, the life phenomena are understood as the Yin-Yang phenomena, and are systematically organized by the subcategories contained in the Yin-Yang doctrine. Understanding Yin-Yang as a metaphor is a good way to enhance the Yin-Yang concept and doctrine as a rational terminology and method.

• Journal of Science and Technology Studies
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• v.5 no.1 s.9
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• pp.93-123
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• 2005

This work has following two research goals. First, IVF treatments that have been recently going on in Korea are reexamined from the perspective of women's reproductive rights. Second, the intimate connection between IVF and therapeutic cloning research, in that remnant embryos and eggs that have been secured through IVF treatments have served as a main source of supply for therapeutic cloning research, has been emphasized. The fact that the influencing power of tradition on Korean families and women and IVF techniques eventually joined their hands in support of therapeutic cloning research is noted. Analysis of experiences of infertility by women in the realms of family, medical care during IVF treatment, and therapeutic cloning research that requires continuous supply of eggs leads to following conclusions. First, in the realm of family, infertile women were not only relegated to the status of abnormality but pressured to question their own womanhood. Under this circumstance, IVF treatment helped to reinforce the traditional concept of biological motherhood, thus categorizing married women giving birth to babies and married women who can't or refuses to do so to 'normal ones' and 'abnormal ones' respectively. Second, in the realm of medical care an infertile woman could rediscover her own body during the process of IVF treatment. By going through the processes of hormone treatment, implantation, conception, miscarriage, and so on, she could realize that her own body is understood in diverse ways to her, her family, and the medical profession. Third, in the realm of the state, IVF treatment that was serving as the main supplier of research materials for therapeutic cloning research has been able to avoid controversy in public discourses since the latter has emerged as a signifier of new national economic workhorse for the 21st century. As therapeutic cloning research went into high gear, the status of women as egg providers began to assume a political dimension. Women as egg providers are called upon to take on a paradoxical role as patriotic contributors to national economy on the one hand and as guardians of sacred 'life' on the other hand. The direction and progress of the research will depend on the ways that women comply, compromise, and/or resist the contradiction brought about by being assigned to assume these two identities: the one as a member of the nation requested to serve as a part of national economic development project, even though considered ineligible for financial recompense, and the other one as a guardian of sacred 'life,' even though she have to serve the research that is allowed to create a 'life' to destroy a 'life.'