Assisted Reproductive Technology

This book presents a comparative study examining assisted reproductive technology policies in North America and Europe. Based on original and detailed research, this up-to-date volume establishes a knowledge base for understanding policy debates on topics such as embryonic stem cell research and therapeutic cloning.

"Extremely well-written, innovative, and timely, "Infertility Around the Globe is a definitive work. Together, the authors use infertility as the lens to examine numerous compelling social issues, generating a powerful argument that infertility is a globally significant phenomenon. This volume will attract anthropologists and other social scientists interested in the study of reproduction, as well as anyone interested in gender studies, women's studies, and international health."--Carolyn Sargent, co-editor of "Childbirth and Authoritative Knowledge: Cross-Cultural Perspectives

"This groundbreaking, interdisciplinary book will change how infertility is theorized and how intervention programs are designed. It will become the primary sourcebook for international and comparative research in a variety of cultural settings. Reading this book was a distinct pleasure."--Lynn Morgan, co-editor of "Fetal Subjects, Feminist Positions

"A stunning achievement. Through its richly textured ethnographic accounts, this,book beautifully explicates the universals and particularities of involuntary childlessness in disparate world regions. It challenges the myopic view that the heartbreak is limited to advanced industrial societies. This book is a much-needed antidote in a field mostly characterized by polemic and untested assumptions."--C. H. Browner, UCLA School of Medicine

"Scholarship on infertility too often has been culture-bound, focusing on Western versions of biosocial reproductive problems and on technological solutions. This innovative volume decenters that perspective, with studies on the ostracism of elder childless men in Kenya, political suspicions of vaccination campaigns in theCameroons, new reproductive technologies for ultraorthodox use in Israel, and China's emergent eugenics. It enlarges the 'public' in public health."--Rayna Rapp, co-editor of "Conceiving the New World Order: The Global Politics

"Gay Becker, the leading ethnographer of the infertility experience in the U.S., provides a powerful account of how American women and men think, feel, and talk about their utilization of new reproductive technologies. This book will be required reading for those embarking on the infertility treatment odyssey, as well as for scholars interested in the relationship of gender to technology." --Marcia Inhorn, author of "Infertility and Patriarchy

"This is a very powerful book. It forces the reader to scrutinize his/her own relationships to biology, to parenthood and to normalcy. But Gay Becker's real tour de force goes beyond even this! The deeper accomplishment of her work is that when, in a decade or two, children born through these new reproductive technologies ask the parents why they were born in the first place, they will be able to turn to Becker's book. The answers will be cultural as well as personal, deeply anchored not only in their parents' desires and experiences but also in profoundsocial and,technological innovations." --Isabelle Bazanger, author of "Inventing Pain Medicine from the Laboratory to the Clinic

"As a longtime facilitator of infertility support groups, I found The Elusive Embryo to be a fascinating and powerful examination of the cultural forces that shape the experience of being infertile as well as of the relationship between reproductive technologies and the consumers they serve. This is a book that makes you think; it is also one that offers recognition, perspective, and ultimately solace to those undergoing the transforming process of dealing with infertility."--Cecile T. Lampton, M.S.

"What distinguishes this book is its focus on the subjectiveexperience of dealing with infertility and its treatment. The success of Becker's nuanced description of this difficult, emotionally-charged process may be explained by the way in which she brings to bear her own experience of

A distinguished range of contributors examine the experience of infertility from both male & female perspectives, the pyschological aspects of infertility diagnosis & treatment, & the often radical & unexpected effects on kinship. They aim to unravel the implications of new reproductive technologies.

As society struggles to cope with the many repercussions of assisted life and death, the evening news is filled with stories of legal battles over frozen embryos and the possible prosecution of doctors for their patients' suicides. Using an "institutional" approach as an alternative to the prevailing "rights" based analysis of problems in law and medicine, this study explains why society should resist the tendency to look to science and law for a resolution of intimate matters, such as how our children are born and how we die. Palmer's institutional approach demonstrates that legislative analysis is often more important than judicial analysis when it comes to issues raised by new reproductive technologies and physician-assisted suicide. A reliance on individual rights alone for answers to the complex ethical questions that result from society's faith in scientific progress and science's close alliance with medicine will be insufficient and ill-advised.

Since the 1980s, religion has been most visible in American public life when issues of sexuality and reproduction are at stake. Paradoxically, however, the voices that speak most loudly in the name of religion are often unschooled in religious history, world religions, theology, or ethics. As a result, religion in America is misrepresented as anxiously and obsessively concerned with sex, and as uniformly supporting the conservative agenda of "family values." This volume corrects that distortion in American public discourse. Its thirteen previously unpublished articles introduce scholarly perspectives on issues including the family, gay rights, abortion, welfare policy, prostitution, and assisted reproduction. They richly display the complexities and conflicts that exist not only between but within America's various religious traditions--for example, the pro-choice strain within Christian history, the support of many religious denominations for gay rights, and the criticism of patriarchal family structures within religious communities past and present. In these essays, contributors put forth views of sexual ethics that are just and compassionate, respectful of cultural pluralism, and attentive to democratic processes. Thorougly researched, lucidly written, and carefully argues, this anthology will debunk the claims of the Religious Right to be the only "religious" word on sexuality in America.

This is the first book about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender families that connects issues of gender, sexuality, and the family with the broader issues of social movements, politics, and law. Chapters address the themes of visibility, transgression, and resistance, as well as the intersection between the personal and political in the contexts of relationships, parenthood, and political activism. Giving special attention to families of color, immigrant, and poor families, the authors examine the risks entailed in coming out and the significance of class, race, and sexual and gender identity in this process. Parenting also creates dilemmas of visibility as queer families negotiate malls and schools as well as the medical, legal, and political institutions that regulate their families. This book explores how heteronormative and class assumptions influence state polices on parenthood, adoption, and relationships between adults, to question whether the law can meet the needs of queer families. Also discussed is how queer family politics are com-plicated by bisexuality, nonmonagamy, and gender nonconformity.