Author: J. Linus Jude, Dr. J. Praveena

Abstract: Jodi Picoult is an American novelist, renowned for her negotiations with clinical hegemony. Her novel, Handle with Care (2009), could be deemed a poignant entry point into the labyrinthine of clinical ethics, disability studies and the pragmatic management of family politics by mothers. Hence, this article is an investigation of the narrative through the lenses of clinical surveillance. It is an examination of the protagonist’s intense legal and medical negotiations. Willow O’Keefe, who is the protagonist, is the quantified child, born with Type III Osteogenesis Imperfecta. Central to the examination is the wrongful birth lawsuit initiated by Willow’s mother, Charlotte, against her own family doctor. This is the quintessential issue addressed in this article. Thus, the idea of the quantified child stays pivotal in the progression of the novel. This article also attends to those consequences of the legal process that systematically reduces Willow’s existence to a series of economic liabilities, incorporated by medical cost and familial limitation. This article is one adamant argument that clinical hegemony demands the commodification of Willow’s disability. This quantification reduces the child to the fragmentation of self and, eventually, to the loss of identity. Obviously, the child is stripped of her inherent personhood; she is transformed into a data point within the clinical framework. Hence Michel Foucault’s theory of biopolitics is utilized in this article, in order to investigate the clinical surveillance of the disabled Willow and the maternal performance by Charlotte, the mother. In Handle With Care, Picoult advances the point that the familial sphere is no longer private. The article closes with the finding that Handle With Care exposes the dehumanizing gaze of clinical hegemony, which readily views an individual disability through the lens of risk management.

Keywords: Handle with Care, disability, biopolitics, wrongful birth lawsuit, quantified child, Type III Osteogenesis Imperfecta, economic liability, personhood, fragmentation of self, hegemony, maternal performance, gaze, risk management.

Article Info: Received: 08 Apr 2026; Received in revised form: 04 May 2026; Accepted: 09 May 2026; Available online: 12 May 2026

DOI: 10.22161/ijels.113.11