Reflections on Week 8

New technologies and the conceptualization of conceptions

Gammeltofe and Wahlberg’s review article traces the use of selective reproductive technologies all over world where reproduction is embedded in various political/societal/economic contexts and witnessing mixture of state agendas and individual needs. The article show the different forces that shape novel practices of selection in reproduction, which has recognized as a personal choice in 21^st century however. The examination of the use of the technology reveals the uneven distribution of healthcare resources over the world, while reproduction is a matter of individual will in some regions, it is a state effort of nation-state building in other regions where SRTs are used as political methods. The article argues that the use of SRTs “are socially forged through shared frameworks of meaning and institutional regulation”. Even when comes to highly commercialized methods like the ultrasonography, the commercialization process clearly articulates the inequality across the world.

Articles on the use of IVF and gamete donation in Sunni and Shi’a and eggs and wombs being seen as determinants of identity in Israel by Inhorn and Kahn respectively examine how reproduction and new technologies like IVF become embodiment of social/religious conceptions, and how reproduction can be used as a lens to explore morality. Their work show the power of profound social effects that transform the practice of technology as well as how technologies can challenge existing social/rebellious concepts.

In its abstract, “Selective Reproductive Technologies” claims the importance of studying SRTs even the concept of selective reproduction is nothing new in historical sense, it argues that SRTs provide new, alternative choices in reproduction. The use of ultrasound that we will witness tomorrow visualizes the human body on the one hand that makes the result seem more direct to consumers, while authorizes physicians’ expertise on the other. In some sense it is comparable to earlier times when patients and physicians had to negotiate the treatment, and both had access to source of knowledge. Now the pregnant body is no longer personalized and unique, while the result of test is becoming more accessible as well.