Table Of ContentAssisted Reproductive Technologies in the Global
South and North
Assisted Reproductive Technologies in the Global South and North critically analyses the
political and social frameworks of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART), and its impact
in different countries. In the context of a worldwide social pressure to conceive – particularly
for women – this collection explores the effect of the development of ARTs, growing
globalisation and reproductive medicalisation on global societies.
Providing an overview of the issues surrounding ART, both in the Global South and North,
this book analyses ART inequalities, commonalities and specificities in various countries,
regions and on the transnational scene. From a multidisciplinary perspective and drawing on
multisite studies, it highlights some new issues relating to ART (e.g. egg freezing, surrogacy)
and discusses some older issues regarding infertility and its medical treatment (e.g. in vitro
fertilisation, childless stigmatisation and access to treatment).
This book aims to redress the balance between what is known about Assisted Reproductive
Technologies in the Global North, and how the issue is investigated in the Global South. It
aims to draw out the global similarities in the challenges that ARTs bring between these
different areas of the world. It will appeal to scholars and students in the social sciences,
medicine, public health, health policy, women’s and gender studies and demography.
Virginie Rozée is a researcher in sociology at the French Institute for Demographic Studies
(INED), France. She is working on gender and reproductive health and rights issues (abortion,
contraception, infertility, assisted reproductive technologies, cross-border reproductive care,
surrogacy) in different geographical areas (Europe, Latin America, India).
Sayeed Unisa is a professor at the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), India.
Her research interests are gender issues, infertility, and nutrition. She has done a longitudinal
study of infertile couples from Andhra Pradesh, India. She has received the Royan International
award for her research work on infertility. She was also involved in a project on ‘prevention
and management of infertility in India’.
Routledge Studies in the Sociology of Health and
Illness
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Assisted Reproductive Technologies in the Global South and North
Issues, Challenges and the Future
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Assisted Reproductive Technologies in the
Global South and North
Issues, challenges and the future
Edited by Virginie Rozée and Sayeed Unisa
First published 2016
by Routledge
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© 2016 selection and editorial material, Virginie Rozée and Sayeed Unisa; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of the editors to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters,
has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Rozée Gomez, Virginie, editor. | Unisa, Sayeed, editor.
Title: Assisted reproductive technologies in the global south and north : issues, challenges and the future / edited by Virginie
Rozâee Gomez and Sayeed Unisa.
Description: Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2016. |
Series: Routledge studies in the sociology of health and illness
Identifiers: LCCN 2016002027 | ISBN 9781138932357 (hardback) | ISBN 9781315679310 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Human reproductive technology.
Classification: LCC RG133.5 .A86 2016 | DDC 618.1/7806--dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016002027
ISBN: 978-1-138-93235-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-67931-0 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Saxon Graphics Ltd, Derby
Contents
List of contributors
Foreword
DIEGO PALACIOS
Acknowledgements
Introduction
VIRGINIE ROZÉE & SAYEED UNISA
PART I
ART regulation and journey
1 Access to ARTs in Latin America
FERNANDO ZEGERS-HOCHSCHILD
2 ARTs in Brazil: public and private arrangements in the name of access and
reproductive rights
MARILENA C. D. V. CORRÊA
3 The gendered nature of infertility and ARTs
SAROJINI NADIMPALLY & VRINDA MARWAH
4 A socio-anthropological reflection on infertility and ARTs in Algeria
AÏCHA BENABED
5 Knowledge and awareness of men about infertility and their involvement in fertility
treatment: rural men’s voices from Andhra Pradesh India
SUCHARITA PUJARI & SAYEED UNISA
6 Reproductive roaming: the quest for children of African couples in France
VÉRONIQUE DUCHESNE
7 Egg freezing: portraying a new reproductive technology in the Israeli media
DAPHNA BIRENBAUM-CARMELI
PART II
Surrogacy: realities and controversies
8 Surrogacy in India: the good, the bad and the ugly
DURU SHAH, SABAHAT RASOOL & NAGADEEPTI NAGARAJAN
9 Circumvention, crisis and confusion: Australians crossing borders to Thailand for
international surrogacy
ANDREA WHITTAKER
10 Ethical aspects and legal problems when parents return home to Europe after cross-
border surrogacy
FRANÇOISE SHENFIELD
11 ‘All one needs is a credit card’: transnational surrogacy in India on weblogs and in
documentaries
KAREN HVIDTFELDT
12 Surrogacy in context: Ukraine and the United States
DELPHINE LANCE & JENNIFER MERCHANT
13 Local surrogacy in a global circuit: the embodied intimacies of Israeli surrogacy
arrangements
ELLY TEMAN
14 From manufacturing clothes to manufacturing babies: economic precarity and labor
options among surrogate mothers in Bangalore, India
SHARMILA RUDRAPPA
Index
Contributors
BENABED Aïcha, University of Oran, Algeria
BIRENBAUM-CARMELI Daphna, University of Haifa, Israel
CORRÊA Marilena, State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), Brazil
DUCHESNE Véronique, Université Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris Cité, France
HVIDTFELDT Karen, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
LANCE Delphine, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), France
MARWAH Vrinda, SAMA: Resource Group for Women and Health, India
MERCHANT Jennifer, University Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas, France
NADIMPALLY Sarojini, SAMA: Resource Group for Women and Health, India
NAGARAJAN Nagadeepti, Gynaecworld: The Center for Women’s Health and Fertility,
India
PUJARI Sucharita, National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (NIRDPR),
India
RASOOL Sabahat, Gynaecworld: The Center for Women’s Health and Fertility, India
ROZÉE Virginie, French Institute for Demographic Studies, France
RUDRAPPA Sharmila, University of Texas, United States
SHAH Duru, Gynaecworld: The Center for Women’s Health and Fertility, India
SHENFIELD Françoise, University College London Hospitals, United Kingdom
TEMAN Elly, Ruppin Academic Center, Israel
UNISA Sayeed, International Institute for Population Sciences, India
WHITTAKER Andrea, Monash University, Australia
ZEGERS-HOCHSCHILD Fernando, University Diego Portales, Chile
Foreword
Assisted Reproductive Technologies are re-shaping the traditional understanding of
reproduction and motherhood. Operating within a profoundly gendered context, these new
technologies are opening up new discourses and conflicts based on the ways in which they
impact women, and reinforce the notions of family, gender identities and reproductive rights.
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has been engaging with the discourse on ARTs to
understand the implications of ART for women’s reproductive health and rights. Since 2010,
UNFPA has supported evidence generation and creation of a knowledge base on the
complexities surrounding ARTs and commercial surrogacy to guide policy dialogue and
advocacy in India.
It is in this context that in October 2014, UNFPA collaborated with the Institut National
d’Etudes Démographiques (INED, Paris, France), the International Institute for Population
Sciences (IIPS), and the Centre de Population et de Développement (CEPED, Paris, France) to
organize an international seminar on ‘Assisted Reproductive Technologies in Northern and
Southern Countries: Issues, Challenges & the Future’. The seminar aimed to provide a critical
view of ARTs from different country contexts and approaches, and to build understanding on
the implications, concerns, challenges and response mechanisms related to ARTs, across
borders. The idea for a publication based on the papers presented at the conference,
documenting the different perspectives and experiences with ARTs thus took shape.
This publication offers an overview of ART techniques and regulatory mechanisms in
different countries alongwith the associated implications and concerns. The countries included
in the review, are represented by their regional presence- Global South (Brazil, India,
Thailand, Australia and Africa) and Global North (France, Israel, United-Kingdom, and
Europe). The experience of ART across different countries serves to highlight the central role
played by ART in medical tourism in an expanding global market as those seeking ART
services travel to countries where ART is relatively more affordable or where the modalities
are more flexible.
The book also aims to shed light on (un)common controversies and challenges regarding
medical issues, ethical concerns, and commercial practices, around reproduction. For instance,
ARTs are hailed by some especially in the context of the stigma associated with childlessness.
On the other hand, it is argued that the availability of ARTs may further reinforce the social
pressure on women to bear a child. Furthermore there is growing concern that the development
of ARTs in the midst of increasing reproductive medicalization and commercialization may
deepen inequalities between those who can afford such treatments and those who can’t,
between clients of ART services and those who offer their reproductive capacities- often times
