Abstract
A joyous event at a hospital is a reunion of the “graduates” of the neonatal intensive care unit. The 1000-g preemie who spent the first two months of her life breathing with the help of a ventilator is now captain of her third-grade soccer team. The boy born with cyanotic congenital heart disease has survived a series of operations and is now playing piano in recitals. These stories have a powerful symbolic role in the culture of American medicine, celebrating the accomplishments of advanced forms of technology in the hands of specialized members of the hospital staff and physicians.If . . .