Rhetoric Society Quarterly Mar 2002

The public policy debate over newborn HIV testing: A case study of the knowledge enthymeme

J. Blake Scott University of Florida

Abstract

Abstract This essay analyzes the web of persuasion named the “knowledge enthymeme”; in the public policy debate over mandatory newborn HIV testing in the United States and especially New York. Bringing together classical rhetorical theory and Foucault's theory of the knowledge‐power loop, the essay explains how the conceptual/argumentative frame of the knowledge enthymeme helped shape the knowledge‐power relations of mandatory newborn testing in dangerous ways. Ultimately, the knowledge enthymeme blocked more responsive approaches to testing by exaggerating the beneficial effects of testing and its knowledge, ignoring the contingenices of this knowledge, and bypassing the “situated knowledges “ of the women it targets.

Journal
Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Published
2002-03-01
DOI
10.1080/02773940209391228
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Topics
classical rhetoric modern rhetorical theory rhetorical criticism argument qualitative research
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (2)

  1. Whitney (2025)
    Please Provide the Following Information: Enthymemes and the Logics of Individu…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  2. Longaker (2005)
    Market Rhetoric and the Ebonics Debate
    Written Communication

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