Pregnancy Denied, Pregnancy Rejected in Stephanie Daley

Authors

Susan Ayres, Texas A&M University School of LawFollow
Prema Manjunath, University of North Texas Health Science Center

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-2012

Journal Title

Law, Culture and the Humanities

ISSN

1743-8721

DOI

10.1177/1743872112450858

Abstract

This article offers a reading of Hilary Brougher’s film Stephanie Daley (2006), in which a teen is accused of murdering her newborn (neonaticide). Brougher depicts a “phenomenology of unwanted pregnancy” and an example of therapeutic jurisprudence. Part One examines Brougher’s treatment of the “shadow side of pregnancy,” and highlights barriers to the empathetic treatment of neonaticide. Part Two emphasizes the process of therapeutic jurisprudence as experienced by the two main characters. Brougher’s film provides a social narrative and phenomenology that may influence laws and legal responses and enlarge social understanding of unwanted pregnancy.

First Page

132

Last Page

154

Num Pages

23

Volume Number

12

Issue Number

1

Publisher

Sage Publications

Recommended Citation

Susan Ayres & Prema Manjunath, Pregnancy Denied, Pregnancy Rejected in Stephanie Daley, 12 L. Culture & Human. 132 (2012).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/facscholar/731