Reading Reflection Session 8

In Gammeltoft and Wahlberg’s “Selective Reproductive Technologies”, they discuss the how the introduction of technology into selective reproduction has not only created new opportunities but also created more fears and issues along with those opportunities. Selective reproduction is not new as before the development of selective reproductive technologies(SRT) people resorted to infanticide, abandonment and selective neglect in order to create the families that they wanted. The development of in vitro fertilization and prenatal screenings and exams are usually hailed as positive steps forward in the field of medicine. They are usually thought of as providing better healthcare for patients and giving people equal opportunity to have children. However in reality SRTs also bring about a new set of issues and at the same time continue to reinforce old hierarchies and inequalities.

In some countries, selective reproductive technologies have become a form of political power that allows the government to manipulate their population as they wish. For example in China and Vietnam insistent demands are placed on women to submit to technological surveillance during their pregnancy. These demands are framed as being women’s duty to society by providing healthy offspring. In this way, SRTs have become a way to restrict women’s choices rather than providing more choices.

SRTs also seem to reinforce inequality between genders and conventional family ideals. Because of a preference for males in certain countries, SRTs in some places have become more of a way for parents to determine the gender of their child and less so a way for them to learn about their child’s actual status of health. When it comes to learning about the child’s health, SRTs also have become a way of reinforcing conventional families because parents are more likely to select for healthy children due to the stigma of having disabled children.

One new issue that SRTs have created is the decision to terminate wanted pregnancies. At this point once parents learn of a medical issue with their child, their choices usually consist of continuing with the pregnancy, which would mean either the potential for complications and/or caring for a disabled child, or terminating the pregnancy. This is clearly a very emotional and stressing decision for parents to make and before this ultrasounds and amniocentesis were created this was not a choice parents ever had to make. Overall, Gammeltoft and Wahlberg argue that SRTs in addition to bringing new benefits have also created new issues that the anthropological community must pay close attention to as the use of these new technlogies continues to develop.